One about Vikings
by Beth Northman Salvatore Eng
Summary: After a night with the vampire Eric, for Sookie comes the time to meet Eric the Viking, courtesy of her great-grandfather Niall. POST DEATH IN THE FAMILY. Translation from Anira22.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: One about Vikings (translation)

**Author**: anira22

**Synopsis**: After a night with the vampire Eric, for Sookie comes the time to meet Eric the Viking, courtesy of her great-grandfather Niall. POST DEATH IN THE FAMILY.

**Disclaimer from the author**: None of the characters in Southern Vampire Mysteries or True Blood belong to me. They are owned by Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball.

**Translator's note:** I know this is weird, but I read this story in Spanish and I wanted to share it in English. This story is written by anira22 a fabulous writer. So here is it…. Anira22 Espero que te agrade mi traducción… even with the disclaimer from the author, I will try to make this clear **Eric is MINE!**

**Rated**: M

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

"Oh, Eric," I bumped into him when I was leaving home.

"Are you going somewhere, lover?"

"I was going to call you."

"Were you going to let me down, Sookie?" I smiled and nodded. "And what about that bouquet? Do you have a date with some another man whom are you bringing flowers?"

"What a fool" I stood in my tiptoes and reached to kiss his chin. "Tara gave birth this afternoon. I was going to see her and the twins at the hospital. I won't take long (She will be tired), you can wait at home."

"I'll go with you."

"No need, Eric" I didn't see him in a maternity ward's hospital room surrounded by blue bears, pink bunnies and colorful balloons, kids crying everywhere, elated parents and aching women in labor.

"When I was human I saw many births, animals and women, I do not think they changed a lot in 1000 years."

At the hospital I asked for Tara's room and I was a little bit upset when we were escorted there, all the way, while not losing Eric of sight as if they thought that at any moment he would pounce on the babies to steal them from their mothers. Eric didn't mind and even pleased a pair of frightened mothers showing his fangs in a threatening way. Tara pretended she was glad with my visit, not because it bothered her that Eric came with me, but because she had been admitted at the two in the morning and the twins hadn't wanted to born until two in the afternoon. 12 hours of labor. She told me she was exhausted but happy and JB also saw overjoyed. (I think Eric and him has developed a mutual dislike almost instantly when they knew each other.)

The two babies were much like JB, were extremely handsome, but at least Jack (the name they had decided to put the boy) had those open and lively eyes that gave him a living look which his father lacked, because JB had many virtues, but intelligence was not one of them. I didn't waited for Tara or he gave me permission to take the girl from her crib, once she was awake and carry her in my arms. I laughed watching JB juggling to hold his newborn son. It's amazing that despite big hands and big arms most men doesn't manage well to catch just a child. I melted when the small baby in my arms began to pout and made kitten like sounds. I stroked her cheeks soft skin with my nose and cooed her a little while putting a shrill and childish voice as I dropped absurdly meaningless drivel. Eric just was there standing, quiet, impassive, waiting.

Little Jack began to squirm and whine uncomfortable in the arms of his father. I noticed that Eric stretched arms and with an easy, simple and slow movement accommodated the child face down on one of his hands.

"Well I never thought a vampire..." JB began to say.

"I had children when I was human" Eric defended himself "they like to be in their tummy. He has a strong neck" Eric said when he lifted his head to look around.

Tara and JB smiled, but I felt the cold invaded my guts and veins like my blood had frozen in that very same moment. It wasn't the first time I thought about my situation with Eric, I knew that the fact of being with a vampire meant that I couldn't have a normal life, and knew that being Eric's girlfriend means that I couldn't get pregnant either from him or any another guy… and probably, knowing the opinion that Eric had about some of the methods of modern medicine, even not through artificial insemination.

We were there to visit, and we would never get someone to visit us in the hospital for this happy reason. I would never be Tara and he would never be JB. He already had his children and it hadn't been with me.

Eric looked at me again and handed the baby to his father, he opened his eyes and roused himself while JB was trying without succeed, putting his on his tummy with the same grace that Eric had.

"We should go now," said my vampire "Women should rest."

I nodded, I handed the girl to Tara, and I gave them both a kiss and congratulated them for the last time. I walked out the door of the room with Eric behind me, his hand on my back, pushing me to leave that place.

I tried to cheer up with Eric on the way back home, but in the times he glanced at me I knew that he knew I was a bit sad at the time.

Perhaps because of the influence of his blood or maybe because I knew what I was going to get when we arrived home I began to feel a little more happy. Eric and I showered together and then we had dinner in my kitchen (or I had dinner and he looked at me) I told him I had spent four days working at the bar in the morning shift and if Sam don't change my shift soon, I would be soon like an indigent. Eric tried to talk about the hospital several times, but after my jogs he left it away and told me that Pam and he had spoken with the lawyer about opening a striptease club on Shreveport (Eric laughed at me and said that when he told me I put the same face that would have fairy after taking a bite of a sour lemon. Excuse me Mr. Viking I don't like that my boyfriend is going to open a place where he will be surrounded by naked beautiful women who will be more than happy to give him a private lap dance.)

Although I fell asleep exhausted, I would have preferred Eric to stay overnight, however, it must not be one o'clock in the morning when he approached and kissed me goodbye. I threw my arms around his neck and pull him toward me (Is not that I have enough force to knock Eric if he doesn't want to be knocked.)

"Stay, stay, stay..."

"I have work at the bar, my sweet little baby."

"What if something happens while you're not here?" Low punch. He chuckled.

"I will come flying if I notice something weird. Bill also is a minute from here and I am sure he will be happy to be a hero with you."

"What if I get horny before dawn, should I call Bill?" Eric roared, buried his face in my neck and tickled me while I kicked the bed laughing. He lifted his face and gave me a big kiss.

"Tomorrow I'll stay all night" I clicked my tongue disappointed "Sorry you become sad at the hospital. I know you want to be a mother" I bit my lip and said nothing "Sorry I cannot give you that" I nodded and shrugged my shoulders. You cannot want a normal life, a normal family, a normal first love, a normal job, and children and also want to have an undying love. You have to give something away, and now I do not want to give Eric away. I think I will not want to give it up him ever.

I got out of bed because our activities had made me thirsty. I rubbed my eyes and turn on the hall light. I felt a presence behind me as soon as I set foot on the step. I froze the guts when I realized it was a fairy, a fairy who was not Dermot or my cousin Claude. I lost my balance noticing his hand on my back and I fell down the stairs. Before I hit my head, I seemed to see my great-grandfather Niall smiling at me.

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><p><em><strong>Translator's note: <strong>If you like it please send your reviews I will translate all of it but you have to be patient there are 105 chapters. Cheer me up and I will hurry ok … bye_

_Sorry for the troubles this moving may have caused._


	2. Chapter 2

****Translator's note: **I am posting everything as it was in the first pen name.**

I'm sorry that I take so long to update, but I had been writing my own stories, and to me it is double job. So please forgive me if I am slow.

I thank to **ashmo2000, hitsrin, Skjoldmen, lunjul, saldred75, lacevas, Lara Kingsley, Bruja1775, kardamon, Perfecta999, nordiclover**, Beertjes, Sookie-Eric, gleek987, topdog19, vampire696, EverlastingBeauty, GailJustGail, LizLizzy, Meekasa, Navidasti, RKandee13, TiaMalfoy1D, Ynaffit9885, bely1997bibi, erin1705, juliegh, mesmerizing and the viking's kittykat for all the cheering up, especially the ones who left reviews.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

The light came through my eyelids causing the pain in my head became intensified. I touched where I had been hit and bit my lip. I was cold and for some strange reason that I didn't want to think about I felt my back, buttocks and legs wet, as if I had slept throughout the night on wet grass. I heard a noise to my left, as a branch braking while you step on it and I wide opened my eyes. The sun over my head blinded me, with shock and panic I realized that was outdoors. I pulled my hands away from my face and leaned on the ground to get up. My fingers dug between wet and cold leaves. I sat up and looked around. It was in the middle of a field, or forest. It was very cold, trees were bare and brown, and the sky had some high clouds that caught glimpses of the sun that had awakened me.

I stood up and felt the urge to scream, but anybody who had taken me there could hear me and I didn't know their intentions. I started to walk, at least to warm up, after fifteen minutes I started to get really scared and tears began to appear. I didn't know where I was, but I for sure I knew, I wasn't in Louisiana. I am not an expert in flora and fauna, but I know the birches, oaks and beeches aren't characteristic trees from the south. The litter was so wet that not even crunched under my feet. I hadn't seen a single house or a car track, I hadn't walked by any road and not even by climbing a tree I managed to watch a light tower. Became increasingly convinced that wherever I was, I had been brought here by the fairies, Dermot had told me that some of them liked to live in the lush forests of the country, those forests where there is hardly any trace of civilization and where for hundreds of miles it is not anything than nature.

I heard a horse whinnying and voices. I breathed relieved and screamed.

"Here, here! Help, please!"

A group of men on horseback appeared from behind some trees. I was so scared and it was so cold that I didn't noticed their strange clothing until they approached. They looked like something out of a movie or a medieval fair. A tall blond man, with long hair, beard and mustache dismounted. He was wrapped in a brown wolf fur and wore tan boots of the same material. He told me something in a language I didn't understand and when he apart the wolf fur to take out one arm and extend his hand in a gesture that indicated he wanted me approach him, I realized that he was wearing a long sword gleaming steel attached to the waist. I took two steps back, but he was faster, held me by the arm and I struggled and screamed. He yelled at me, he was shouting, but I didn't understand him. Finally, for the second time in a few hours I lost consciousness again after, I suspect, he hit me with his fist.

When I woke up I was safe and warm in bed. I snuggled between the sheets and I kept my eyes closed because of the headache. I had pasty mouth, so I assumed it was not Eric who had discovered me at the foot of the stairs, because he would have given me his blood and I would have felt well to wake up.

Finally opened my eyes, I was expecting to see Jason, or perhaps Dermot or even Claude. But all I found was air, the air between my body on the bed and a roof of dark woods of different hues. I wake up in a hurry and I felt dizzy. Everything was made of wood, except the window glass. It was like an opaque glass, dirty, not as defined and clear crystal glasses: it was raining. The other source of light came from an oil lamp. It was in a huge bed, at least three feet wide, covered with wolf furs. I looked underneath and saw that I was completely naked. My eyes filled with tears. As I started to hyperventilate, a red shadow appeared in the doorway.

A beautiful woman, who wouldn't exceed her fifties, blonde, tall, with blue eyes and wearing a red velvet dress embroidered with golden threads, approached me. She didn't seem like a fairy, but certainly looked like something out of a tale.

She approached and offered me a clay glass of water. I drank greedily as she scrutinized me with a glare. Asked something in an unknown language. She kept talking and asking questions, or that's what I think, from the tone she used. At the end shook her head, left an ocher rag at the foot of my bed and went to the other side closing the door through which she had entered. I wore the dress with confidence and girded my waist with a piece of green cloth.

"Open up, open up, please! Open the door!" Shouted hitting and pulling a handle. I heard somebody took off the lock on the other side and soon I was in a large room, also made of wood, with a long table and benches on both sides; such as the picnic tables on a park.

I wiped the tears to see well. My feet were getting cold. Where I had been brought? When Eric found out he was going to rip their throats, and I would be his faithful audience.

There were several people in the room, the woman I had seen before and, sitting on a throne like presiding at Fangtasia, the same man who had hit me. He spoke with two other men and the woman scrutinized me with her eyes. He spoke to me and I shook my head. His talkers, who were standing around, also tried. They were human, I could hear their heads buzzing on mine, their thoughts running through their brain at full speed. But I didn't understand a word of them. For a moment I thought it was German or Dutch and that I could be in Pennsylvania, but that didn't explain their outfits.

"_¿Quis es?_"[1] She asked me. I looked at her and frowned "_¿Quis es?_" I shook my head, trying to clear it and put it in order "_¿Unde venis?. ¿Latin, scis?_"[2] I nodded at last. In high school I enrolled in Latin and Greek. Dead languages classes were empty and I didn't have to endure the horrible buzzing thoughts from the rest of my classmates, I could concentrate and got very good grades. I never thought I had a chance to use the Latin beyond words to guess in game shows.

"_Intellego_. _Sic_..."[3] The woman looked at the man on the throne and nodded.

"_Hoc_. _¿An_ _servus?_"[4] I tried to clear my head and she pressed on the issue. Males have huge swords knotted the belt and thought it was much better someone apparently harmless.

"_Hoc_. _Sic_. _Ego_ _sum_ _servus_[5]" She said something to the man on the throne, who nodded and waved his hand. The remaining men were relaxed and one even pulled his hand from his sword hilt. I breathed in relief.

"_¿Fugit?_"[6] She asked. I bit my lip, not knowing what to say. I'd to tell them that I'd fled, but from where? I didn't answer and that seemed to give them an answer.

They continue talking to each other, the chief stood up and held a huge knife against my neck. When Eric show up the first one to be punished would be him, that if he was lucky that I didn't get rid from them before. I looked into his eyes and shrank the air in my chest. He had a familiar resemblance with Eric: eyes, forehead and the shape of the lips that I hadn't noticed due to being hidden behind the lush blond beard. He said something in his language and suddenly I thought I heard a word I had heard sometime in my vampire mouth. The woman approached and pulled away with sweet but sure hand, the knife in my throat. She didn't stop looking in the man's eyes at any time. He turned away, muttering and she looked at me with an air of superiority.

"Helga" said pointing to her chest with the palm of the hand. Then pointed toward the man "Halvar".

"Sookie" I said. She tilted her head and I realized that, in my capacity as declared slave must tilt even more. My gut echoed by hunger, she raised an eyebrow in a gesture very known to me, and I thought I saw Eric's nose in her, and some of his gestures. She took my arm but was interrupted by King Halvar. I think it's her husband. They said things quietly and in the end she lowered her head and nodded. I don't know of what they had been talking about, but until now it had seemed that she won every discussions but this. She drove me to the fire and pointed the ash, a straw broom without a handle beside the ash and a wood dustpan, then she made me an indication that made me realize that she intended me to collect the ashes extinct fires from the household. I knew how it worked. Then she took me out of the house. I was creeped out when my feet trod the cold mud around the house from which we had come out. I could see that I was in a strange town. There were many wooden houses, the bigger was Helga's and Halvar's. Everything smelled cold, sea salt, forest and wood burning from the fireplaces. There were barking dogs, extremely blond and redhead children playing, laughing and chattering women and men going to and fro.

Helga stood beside a well and waited until I focus my attention back to her. She grabbed the bucket of yew wood and metal attached to the rope down to the water and that, for its size, must be able to contain about eight liters[7] of water and with her hand indicated that I had to take out three buckets of water.

"No alimenta"[8] she said putting her hand to her mouth and making the universal gesture of eating "ad finem tripaliare"[9] So they wouldn't give me food until I pick up the ashes and take out the three buckets of water. There wasn't a heavy and long work, her intention wasn't other than to emphasize my status as a slave. If I wanted to eat, bed or protection, I would have to work. I didn't dislike. Also, I didn't understand a word of those running through her brain and that relieved me. At least while I was here until Eric finds me or I find out how to get home, I will have peace.

I ate hungrily what they gave me. Goat cheese on warm bread, a piece of bacon and half grilled onion accompanied by goat's milk. As I finished my glass of milk three children came through the door. They began to shout with joy to Helga who clapped and they silenced. She approached them to me and said my name and something more. She ordered them from highest to lowest and introduced them by putting her hands on their shoulders. I stared at the medium boy and I thought I was going crazy. Somebody would have to skin me alive if that child wasn't Eric, my Eric. Helga was his mother.

"Leif" introduced Helga. He was a blond, sturdy, with a strong resemblance to his mother. He must have been about ten years.

"Audr" She was blonde also, but not like Leif. She wore lovely braids clasped with green ties. She came to me and took my hand. I smiled and sat her on my knees. She wouldn't have been older than five years.

"Eric" Helga said. I held out my hand and stroked his jaw tenderly. Couple of tears sled out while looking at him more closely. He had lighter hair and darker eyes and, of course, the skin was pinker. He must haven't turned eight years.

"You are very handsome", I kissed the girl on the cheek when she started chattering, I didn't understand anything, I laughed.

"Sookie" Helga called. She motioned for me to follow and I got along with the children. She took me to a house almost adjoining the palace (that's how it should be called compared with the rest of the huts). It was a dream house, slightly sunken in the ground, all wood. It was covered by a blanket of fat grass that made it look like Tolkien's hobbits' houses. Leif opened the door and stepped inside. The children released my hands and began to play, the two boys with wooden swords and girl holding a rag doll and miniature wooden horse in front of the fire. There were several beds on one side and a table with benches around near the fireplace: copper pans, pewter pots, vases, jars and pottery utensils and knives. I saw a wooden ladder, such as painters, although not so vertical and with thicker steps, rising to a wooden platform. Upstairs was a huge bed like the one I had awakened after Halvar left me knockout. Helga opened the trunk that lay at the foot of the bed and pulled out several wool dresses. She stuck them to my chest and then gestured to me to tell me they were for me. I wanted to protest when I saw she drew out the colorful and prettiest fabrics and shook her head, setting them apart to take them after she had shown me everything.

We went down again where the children played and she led me to one side of the house, where she opened a door and showed me several bags and containers. She opened a hatch, grabbed an oil lamp and went down the hatch. We faced a cold room with ice where several foods were preserved, but mostly onions, meat and smoked fish. We went back up and she showed me the contents of the bags and vessels: oat, barley, rye, oil and wine. She opened a bag of greyish color and put some grain in my hand, then she took my arm and pulled me out to the street and we walked around the house and into the fence and inside the fenced I saw three pigs and several chickens. Helga took my hand and led me throwing grain to the birds.

"Cotidie"[10] she said. I nodded. I must feed the chickens every day. I pointed pigs and she shook her head and pointed her chest. I guess those animals were too important to be left under my care. Good, because they made me a little scared. They were black and huge, at least 150[11] kilos, the smallest.

We entered into a wooden pen in which there were three goats and a horse and various farm implements. Helga pointed out to me the straw, the watering hole that I must keep full of clean, fresh water, and the metal bucket that should be used to collect milk when I milked the goats. She handed it to me so I could show her how I did it and approaching the bench wooden animal, I placed the bucket under its udders and as I had been taught at the farm school that my grandmother sent me every year hoping it would make my life more normal, I started to get milk. She smiled, got an egg from the pile of straw where the hens rested during the night and we came back into the house when I got enough milk for dinner.

She hugged her children and returned to tell them something about me, I realized that Helga thought that I was a nice person and that I seemed a very harmless to Halvar if they left me to care for their children. She pointed at me, then pointed to the children and finally approached two fingers to her eyes, telling me that my main task was to take care and watch over the kids.

I inspected the house as soon as she was gone, examining every nook. Settled the beds as I like them and prepared things for dinner. I was beginning to doubt that the fairies had set me up. I feel good and I am not in pain, so it's possible that this is a very real dream or a hallucination that I am having after falling from stairs and brake my head. In the first case, I just have to wait to wake up. If they have been fairies, I had noticed all fireplace tools are made of iron, and I bet the fairies don't like to meet them in the face. And if this is a hallucination caused by a cerebral coma, I just have to wait for Eric to come home, find me and provide his healing blood. I wake up in my bed, with the metallic taste of blood on my tongue, completely naked with my boyfriend by my side ready to make love to me. The other possibility, which I wanted to rule out but I couldn't, is that my fall down the stairs have acted as my own private Delorian, and that it would have led me to a trip back in time (and space) and I am now in Northern Europe, probably future Sweden, at some indeterminate time between 900 and 1100 I stopped thinking about nonsense and prepared for what was living; dream or reality.

I gave the children dinner and before bedtime, I forced them to pee (for which we had to leave home) and brush their teeth (they didn't understand and I had to do it with my fingers. Eric was already showing his manners because he bit my finger and ran toward the house bending in laughter)

"Believe me you want to keep your teeth!" I yelled "You're going to need them the next thousand years."

I went back to the house and saw that they were already in bed. I approached Audr and I sang a song as she closed her eyes and slept. I found that Eric also paid attention to me and smiled.

I put a few more logs on the fire so that the heat would last all night, I stuck a thorn and I had to get it out with my teeth. It bled and stung horrors. In dreams there was no pain, and within hours I had suffered migraine, I had pricked my finger and felt the burning pain of being punch in my neck by a six-foot Viking. I inspected the children were well clothed with furs and was kissing them one by one. I smiled at the beautiful picture Audr was, and because of the nerves of checking that I, Sookie Stackhouse, was living my own Viking nightmare. The man of my life, human at the end, was only a child of eight years. I wiped a tear and kissed on the cheek to my little Eric.

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><p>[1] Who are you?<p>

[2] Where do you come from? ¿do you understand Latin?

[3] I understand. So ...

[4] This. ¿Are you a slave?

[5] This. So. I am

[6] ¿Fled?

[7] 2.113 gallons

[8] No feeding

[9] Al terminar el trabajo

[10] Daily

[11] 330.7 pounds

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><p><em><strong>Translator's note: <strong>Next chapter in 3 days I promise._


	3. Chapter 3

**Translator's note: **I took a little bit longer waiting for reviews, sorry it is disappointing not to get them... I am thinking in quitting this huge project. But is up to you, if you keep sending reviews. Not only add to favorites. Please Send REVIEWS.

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

After three days of being there I realized two things: the first was that I already knew all the words related to household (such as bed, kitchen, fire, table, goat milk... etc.) which facilitated my understanding of the needs of children. The second was that those same children had not bathed in those three days.

I filled the bucket for the second time and I poured over the pot to heat the water, then I prepared a basin of wood suitable for bathing.

"To the water" I told Audr. I undressed the little girl who insisted on bathing with his carved wooden deer. I washed her hair and body with the same soap. With Eric and Leif everything was more complicated. They scrambled and rolled around until they got even dirtier, I caught Leif by the ear and Eric by the hair, and after finishing as bathed as them, I got all the accumulated grime cleaned.

My relationship with Halvar remained fairly distant, but in his eyes and on his lips, even in his voice, often saw Eric, which I made me easy to distrust and sulk him as being in a good mood. Helga treated me well, I think she likes to talk with me in Latin (and I'm not great conversing in that language). She was a cultured woman, but I haven't asked how she came to speak the language of the ancient Romans. I advanced in leaps and bounds in the Nordic language they used and already managed to shout and scold the children quite comfortably.

The days were getting increasingly heavy, the fog leave late in the morning and came early at the afternoon and moisture soaked everything. The waves hit the cliffs so hard it was weird not seeing the hard and black stones crumble due the power of the sea. The anguish of the climate seemed to have made the rest of town dam. Many of the women had left their good mood and wandered thoughtful, taciturn and silent around the town few streets. They came and went to the port, and waiting for the sea to give us a truce from the fog and moisture to disperse. I looked forward to the winter came, because at least the cold ice and snow would replace this cold that penetrated to the bone.

On the seventh day of thick fog, vicious humidity and wrathful sea, some of the women invited me to go with them to the forest to collect firewood due the fireplaces devoured fires hungrier than ever. I took the horse and hooked a small trailer. I get Audr and Eric up and cover them to the eyes with two wolf furs. Leif led the horse down the road in the company of other cars and the other women. They talked about their husbands, their sons and their brothers, and wondered if they would be back soon and... or if they would. The boats were gone for weeks, before I arrived, loaded with men from the village. The anguish of women wasn't due only to the uncertainty of never seeing their men, but to the fact that if they didn't return triumphant from sea, provided with tuna, cod, whale oil and other food, their children will suffer hungry and cold in winter and some don't even overcome. I turned on the car and I rummaged Eric blonde hair, understanding at last the hard times he had had to live as a human. We were stopping as we found good wood for fires.

Eric and Audr collected twigs, while Leif and I managed to get some good sized logs. Some trees had fallen because of the wind whipping us at night, but they were green wood useless for us. And the dry wood of fallen trees there for some time, was wet because of the bloody mist, but it was better than nothing and Leif and I managed to catch three whole trunks, that would serve us to spend the next few days, while the green ones dried by the fire and the expected snow arrive.

I massaged my tired neck and I wore a white sepia linen dress to sleep. I wore nothing underneath and I was very comfortable as well. I picked up the iron plate and inserted within a few embers of the fire to warm the foot of my bed. I got into it and lay down in the center, waiting for my little companions decided to get out of their beds and sleep with me. As always, the first to arrive was the little Audr who snuggled against my chest. Eric hugged my back and Leif followed, lying next to his sister. I did not sleep until the three of them were by my side.

Within a fortnight I began to handle myself with the language quite fluently. I've always heard that to learn a language is best to be among natives who don't speak otherwise. Well how right is who said it! The children and Helga helped me a lot. Often watching Leif do homework while he was showing me the name of things. Eric also liked to tell his life and made it with some understandable words, pictures and gestures, to which he put names. Audr taught me many things from the home, pointing with their fingers the names of the things she was seeing. I think we are learning to speak both at the same time.

Despite the harshness of life, I was happy to be where I was, although I missed my vampire. I never went to bed at night without being tired. I always did tired. Tired of working around the house and dealing with the kids. Leif was a sun, and although he was mischief, as the largest he struggled to work. Audr was adorable, she barely made me work with her rag dolls and wooden toys. Eric was the worst: Sometimes I was tempted to look him in the neck to see if it had a 666 birthmark announcing my future vampire was actually the antichrist. Not that he was bad, it was like having to take care of five children over the account. While everyone went to bed exhausted, he still had the energy to ask for stories, annoy his brother or putting bugs on Audr's bed. God, how I loved him.

I did not know how long I had been slept when a strange sound woke me up. In the distance, the powerful sound of a horn could be heard. Leif and Eric woke up startled. Down in the street, a stir was heard. I lit a candle and walked to the window. The women ran towards the port. The horn sounded again, this time accompanied by the sound of other horns. My heart jumped breast because it was not unusual to suffer attacks from other Viking villages, and although I hadn't expected and neither experienced one, I knew that the horn announcing an attack could sound at any time. I had to put the kids safe.

Audr rubbed her eyes and asked what happened. Eric and Leif uncovered and helped her up, taking her out of bed. They went down hurriedly and opened the front door of the house.

"Is father" Leif shouted.

"Father?" I asked.

"Is Father, Audr!" Eric grabbed his sister by her little hand and he inlaid her in a thick leather "Come on, Sookie. Boats arrive!"

I covered my shoulders with one of the furs which lay in bed and followed the kids to the street. The women ran to the port joyful, shouting the names of their husbands or their children, happy to see them again and distressed at the prospect they didn't come on the boats.

Helga and Halvar were in port as well as the rest of the people. However, all made way for the children, who were placed next to the chiefs and me behind them.

"Over there," the watchman said. The waves were strong and often confused me with the sound of the keel of a ship breaking water. After about two minutes, a ghostly figure appeared out of the mist over our heads and many of the people who were there couldn't suppress an "oh". The head and neck of a huge sea dragon in black had just emerged from the white fog. Seconds later, it followed the rest of the boat. More ghostly heads of mythological animals arrived in port. Women began shouting names, and from the deck, the voices of men were heard responding to them calls: they had returned. They started down the dock. It wasn't very different than the scenes that can be seen today at airports, ports and train or buses stations. Beloved people returning home.

Helga, Halvar and children looked on deck for someone. Finally, Helga put her hands to her mouth to cover a cry of happiness, stepped forward and extended his arms towards the figure climbed out of the boat.

The air left my lungs and I thought my heart would leave my chest trough the mouth. He wore the long beard also mustache. He was thinner than normal, but he was the same blond, strong and wonderful as ever.

"Son" Halvar hugged Eric and gave him a loud pat on the back.

"Father."

"Eric" Helga hugged him and danced with him embrace. After they separated, she stroked his beard and held his cheeks, then kiss him on the mouth "Son" She hug him again as he returned the gesture with love and children pulled the chain in his pants waiting for the moment he pays attention to them. He separated from his mother and bent, full height, to embrace Leif, Eric and Audr that hung from his neck.

"Unload the boat" Halvar shouted. Eric stand up with Audr in his arms, while Leif and small Eric threw a flood of questions. Helga grabbed his arm, the arm that was not holding the girl, and together they walked toward the palace. I stood there, standing motionless, staring at the man I loved being Human walking with his human family. My heart was a rush of emotions and my head one of thoughts. A firm and comforting hand on my back pulled me from my inner thoughts. Halvar gently pushed me forward, urging me to walk home, following the rest of the family.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors note**_: If the thing carries the way I planned (and there are still quite a few chapters) yes, it is likely that Sookie will spent a bad times when she is back... if she is back_

**Translator's note:**

From here I will write Erik for the kid, and Eric for the adult. O.K. to prevent from mixing up.

I am trying to do my best in the translation, but sometimes is hard to figure out what the author is trying to say, because she jumps from present to past and forward in the same paragraph.

Every dialog is supposed to be in Old Norse, except the ones in italics, the ones that are in italics are in Latin or English. I will write a reference and a note at the end of the chapter.

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

Those who recently returned sat at the long tables at Helga's and Halvar's house, while the other men who had remained in the village, due to illness, youth, old age or because simply it was their duty to stay in the village this time to defend it in case of attack, bombed the sailors with questions.

The women were fooling around with them and served them cold beer and mead in abundance, smoked tuna, boiled eggs, and roast beef. Audr was sitting on Eric's lap, Helga was on his right and his son Erik on his left, while Leif and Halvar sat opposite. I was standing behind him.

Eric had told something about a group of whales and a tuna's school that almost made them sink, and also about a village on France's coast which they had looted and from where they bring wine, olive oil, almonds, garlic and fruits (and a doll for Audr).

"Father, have you seen...?" Audr asked when Eric finished telling his story. I did not understand the last word of the girl's question. But I figured, by the response of my Viking, that his daughter had asked him if he had seen dragons in their journey. Eric made up a fantastic story and his sons didn't stop staring at him. Me neither. He was very different, with very long hair, beard and mustache. I was so used to him always the same, that I didn't thought it was him at all.

"Sookie" Helga called me. Eric turned and fixed his eyes on me for the first time "help the other women to serve men."

"Okay dokey" I said avoiding the gaze of the man who wasn't my vampire anymore, but a Viking.

"Serve my son" Halvar commanded me. I nodded embarrassed and I gave Eric a big jug of beer and a roasted rabbit. When Eric drank from the jug I stopped the air in my throat and when he bit the rabbit pulling a piece of meat from the leg, my pulse stopped and I whine like a fool, again. I never thought I would look him like this. He was gorgeous eating. He took another sip of beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. That gesture that in any other would be repugnant, in him I found it cute.

While he ate, I heard Halvar and Helga explain Eric who I was, the circumstances in which it had appeared and that I was taking care of his children.

"Does she take good care of you?" Eric asked his children.

"Yes" Young Erik replied "but she forces us to bath every day, father" Eric and Halvar laughed and Leif joined to his little brother, complaints.

"Well, I won't change that" Eric said after his laughter had gone out. Audr had fallen asleep in his arms and Erik began to rub his eyes.

"Let's go home", I put my hand on the little one's shoulder "Is late."

"I'm not tired" Erik said while yawning, I smiled. I bent down and kissed him on the cheek "Let's go, Leif, you too"

"Leave Audr here with me" Eric said when I went to pick up the little girl from his arms "I'll take her to bed later", I took off the robe that was over my shoulders and wrapped the girl with it, so she wouldn't get cold. I took advantage of this and while I was settling the clothes, I touch Eric's shirt and lightly touch his skin. His flesh was warm and heart skipped a beat.

I lay in bed with Little Erik when I returned home. I shivered at the thought of lying down in the big bed such as had been doing till now. Where he slept.

Eric came to his house very late, must be close to dawn. He put the little girl to sleep in her bed and for a while he sat in front of the fire, staring at it. He left the house, went to the woodshed looking for timber and put a log in the hearth when he came in again. He took off his fur coat and left the sword from his belt. He hung from the wooden beams the various knives that he was taking out from different hideouts between his clothing and his body. He went out for a second and came back in with a bucket of water, poured it into the cauldron which he had placed over the fire. I saw him cleaning his sword and knives with grease. He picked up the steaming water from the chimney and went out through the door. The birds were singing and the day seemed to be cloudless. I carefully got up and had a look out through a crack in the door. Eric took another bucket from the well and left it on a wooden barrel. He had his back to me. He took off his boots, woolen tunic and trousers and stood completely naked. He took the bucket of cold water and threw it over him. Just then the sun came out and the first rays lit up his skin, tears welling up in my eyelashes and it gave me the chills. He soaped quickly with little attention to the hair and then threw over him the bucket of hot water. I wiped my cheeks when he took a cotton cloth and dried his arms, body and hair while looking at the horizon. The sunlight streamed down his face and chest. He got clean clothes, picked things from the floor and went into the house, where he caught me in front of the fire. I had been so absorbed last night and this morning I had not even seen the crates and barrels that had been unloaded from the boat and into the house.

"Sookie, right?"

"Yes."

"Set up breakfast for my children" he commanded. I was about to show him my tongue. But he had his hair soaked and the shirt sticking to his body. He still had the most wonderful neck in the world... probably the most wonderful neck ever. I wanted to jump on him and kiss him all over, lay him on the bed and see how tough the wooden platform was. But I just nodded and went toward the corral.

While milking the black and white goat I saw him going up the hill that was behind the fence of the house and beyond, outside the fence that surrounded the town. There was a lot of movement to be so early in the morning.

Eric came when we had almost finished breakfast. He sat with us after stoke the home fires.

"Do you know how to treat meat and fish?" he asked me.

"What?"

"Do you know how to preserve them with smoke and salt?" I shook my head and he chuckled "Then you are useless" I looked at him surprised at the harshness of his tone and his words. "Leif, Erik... we have to rush to preserve all fish and meat that comes in the ship's storage. If we let it rot we won't have anything to eat this winter.

"Can I help? Audr said. Eric smiled and stroked a braid.

"Don't talk nonsense, you're afraid to catch fish and you always end up letting it fall to the ground. Like when you let that hake to be swallowed by a dog!" Leif scolded her.

"Audr sing for us and bring us something to drink" Eric defended her. "Okay?"

"What about me?" I asked in a childlike voice. Everyone at the table turned to look at me, as if they had forgotten I was there. Eric sighed and slouched in his seat.

"Start giving me breakfast" I snorted and looked at him with hatred. He hadn't changed even a little bit in a thousand years.

Unbearable jerk. I got up and I put him a big bowl of milk with porridge, a piece of smoked bacon and a dry herring. Okay, yes, I hated him for being a jerk Viking, but in a thousand years I fall for him like crazy! I had to help him gain the weight with which I'll end up knowing him in Shreveport. I couldn't let that he come to me he skinny and scrawny.

I hated being a stupid, in love and softy woman, because when I saw him throwing the food into his mouth my eyes filled with tears again, as the previous night. He made several pleasure noises while chewing, and I felt a knot in my stomach and a tingle down even further, because they were very similar or the same as emitted when he bit me and sucked my blood. And he always did it when we were having sex.

"There are things to accommodate" he said between bites "The trunks are filled with fabrics, utensils, tools and other things. It was a good trip. Don't touch the barrels and the oil pots, they are heavy and could fall. I'll keep them when I have time tonight. Do you know how to sew?" I know I blushed. Why I couldn't do anything he asked? He shook his head and snorted again.

"I brought furs and fabrics. You've grown a lot, Leif, and those pants will be so short at the time when it start to snow."

"I have also grown" Audr said. Eric smiled.

"And I brought you some beautiful dresses and a new doll" her face brightened and she jumped to her dad. Eric continued eating with Audr now ensconced in his lap. She chattered about the puppies Dalla's dog had bred (Dalla better known to me as 'the woman of the geese') which had been born two days ago. Eric silenced her occasionally by giving her a spoonful of porridge or a mouthful of herring.

"Can I have a puppy, pleeease?"

"We'll see," Eric said while covered with furs to go outside. He and Leif headed for the boats while Erik hitched the horse to the cart. Half an hour later they returned laden with the proportion of fish that belonged to Eric. Erik downloaded as big a barrel of salt that scared me to think that, if it fall over him, he would be crushed. Eric and Leif brought pieces of oak, my future vampire complaining because there wasn't enough wood.

"It had been cold" I defended myself "We spent a lot of wood, but recently went out to collect more."

"Where's the ox?" he asked, while hammering to sink a stake into the ground. He was kissable hammer in hand, beard and all.

"It died a few weeks after you left" His eldest son said. Eric cursed. Hit another stick, and bent it to the first one, and then repeated the process on the other side.

"I hoped it to live at least one more winter" he lamented.

"What should we do?"

"At this moment, bring me these branches" Eric said me. I obeyed and he put them in the structure that had stood before, putting together a sort of grill on high.

"We recently went to collect firewood with the horse" I told him.

"My horse is a war horse" he informed me indignantly and looking as if I was stupid.

"O.K. But, can it replace the ox?" Eric looked at me like my neck just grown a second head.

"It isn't to pull the plow or the cart, woman, but to cut heads" he spat.

"_You ... stupid Viking!_" I cursed him in English. Everyone looked at me and Eric guffawed. I got very blushed "_Moron_" I whispered. He didn't seemed to care…

"I don't know what you've said, but I can imagine. I will figure a way to handle things without the ox" He calm us down "And my horse let you tied it to cart?" I nodded. He finished fixing the wood under the wooden structure he had put together, "You must have very strong hands to have succeeded."

"It tried to give me a kick" Leif said him "But she got it right away. And it didn't even protested" I helped Audr to jump a puddle of water. Eric picked her up and sat her on a high step like the one on a ladder. He approached me, he was so close, if I deep aspired surely my breasts rub his.

"I hope you're not softening it with your woman kindness" he winked at me and smiled. I showed him my tongue and he laughed out loud. He was thinking that I smelled good and had great tits. I pulled my chest out and coughed to get his attention. He looked at me and then turned his attention back on the job.

"Let's place the fishes" Eric said. Leif began to accommodate them and Erik helped him "why don't you sing a song, Audr?" The girl stood up and began to sing what sounded like a nursery rhyme. She asked me to get her down of the step where her father had put her and as she set foot on the ground, began to jump and dance around her brothers and Eric.

"Can I help?"

"Do you have anything else to do?" He asked me stumbling while trying to prevent a fish slipping from his hands and hit the ground.

"I have to grind oats for bread, but…"

"Then go to grind oats" Eric told me. He narrowed his eyes because the sun was hitting his eyes directly.

I held back, so I didn't reach out and kiss his eyelids "You smell too good to mess it with the fish" He smiled and the sun brightened his perfect teeth. Leif gave him a killer look, but when I tried to get into his thoughts he was already thinking about what he was doing. Their mother had been dead less than a year, and it shouldn't be easy for them to see their father flirting with another woman. I didn't want to hurt them, but wanted to be with Eric with all my strength. After he shaved, of course.

Eric started the fire and the smoke soon began working in the fish. Audr kept singing and playing while Leif and Erik buried some fish in salt to preserve them, my future husband put together a new structure to smoke the fish that remained to be preserved.

I kept the fireplace on, while grinding a few handfuls of oats, enough to make bread for the day.

Helga came to visit us at noon and I was intrigued watching her and Leif spoke apart, away from Eric. I was worried because Leif pointed in my direction and protested openly about something unknown to me.

We ate the same bread I had just done, with chunks of fresh grilled fish and boiled octopus. Helga told her son to follow her to the back and chatted there for a while, I suspect, about me. Did Leif had said something and now they will get me out of that house? The thought gave me a lump in my throat.

However, Helga left after that without saying anything else.

Eric spent the afternoon in the cold room accommodating the vessels of oil. He put away a gleaming ceramic pot that must have weighed about twelve kilos[1] and was filled with fragrant and dark honey. He took off his shirt because it was hot inside the house and almost gives me a fit. He went out to stoke the fire and cause more smoke and began to chop wood. I bit my lip as I peered through the window hidden. Drops of sweat fell from the tip of the nose and chin to the floor. Sweat ran down his back to get lost in his waistband, low enough to reveal his glorious dimples. Before I realized what I was doing had my hand between my legs. Dalla 'the woman of the geese' awaked me from my private fantasy, she approached to Eric and they were talking about the piece of fence near our homes and that offered little resistance and about the puppies her sheep-dog had. Eric wanted one to collect the chickens in the yard and to keep the geese, he thought to buy in the livestock fair to be held in spring in a nearby town.

We dined outdoors porridge with honey, and Eric had dinner with a piece of bacon and oat bread with roasted parsnip. We also ate some roasted chestnuts on the fire before going to bed. Audr insisted on staying with her father, but my Viking didn't let her. He would stay up all night to stoke the fire and the smoking process went well. I wanted to put a mead to warm him, although near the fire was not bad, but Eric was afraid that the alcohol made him sleepy. The kids went to bed and went to keep him company for a while, I felt comfortable with him overnight. I was engrossed watching him stare into the fire, it was almost like in those times when my vampire gets lost thinking or staring into space, watching the world spin around and change while he remains motionless and unchanging. But there was a big difference in his shining eyes and the way his breath turned to steam in contact with the cold atmosphere. He began to sing a song quietly, it talked about Freia and a pastor, and the Asgard, the Olympus of Viking gods. I never heard him humming and at first I was surprised and I smiled; but only until I got lost in his voice and in the history of the song. I felt his hand shake his shoulder shortly after.

"Go to sleep or you'll get sick," I had fallen asleep, "lie down on the big bed. I will not go."

"But..."

"Go" he forced me. I didn't want to leave him alone. He had arrived at dawn from his long, painful and eventful trip, he hadn't slept and had made unloading the ship and bring the groceries home, and then he had spent the morning and afternoon working just stopping to eat a little "Go" He insisted. I obeyed reluctantly. He got up and proceeded to flip the fish. I went to bed and fell asleep immediately. I heard him get into a couple of occasions to put wood on the fireplace to keep the house warm.

I woke up with the tip of the nose and ears cold, a dreadful feeling, if you ask me. I thought Eric maybe had slept and had neglected both home and outside fire. I heard a noise downstairs and I looked out the little round window that opened on where his big bed was. I saw nothing, not even Eric in front of the fire, but now that he had human needs that didn't mean anything, especially because the smoke was still rising strongly over the net of fish. I went to hear a dry blow, I went downstairs and I looked out the window for a better look and I discovered the reason for the noise: Eric and Dalla did it against the wooden wall of the house.

I put my hand to my mouth and I turned around closing heavily my eyes, trying to clear my mind of what I had seen. But another blow against the wood and a moan reminded it to me vividly. I grabbed the wooden ladder to climb back up, but I felt my hand burning. I couldn't sleep upstairs in his bed. I staggered to the bed and lay beside Erik, the Erik that for weeks I thought it was my Eric. Then I began to mourn.

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><p>[1] 26 pounds 7.2876 ounces<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note**_: In Bon Temps things are happening, of course, but I didn't plan to tell what is happening there, yet, but practically the end of the fic, because I think if not, many things would be revealed (I know it is not that I am writing a mystery novel, but I would keep a little uncertainty)._

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><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

I got up I was feeling fatal. I didn't feel like doing anything and it was Erik who had to wake me up. I covered up with a fur to the head and pout.

"Are you sick? Shall I call father?"

"No! I wake up, I wake up" I stood and rubbed my eyes. Lucky there were no mirrors, I felt my dark circles should reach my navel. I did the tasks like a robot and I wanted to spit Eric in his filthy face of happiness.

"Erik, Leif, You finish sewing the fish" He said. He had been sewing the smoked fish, so we could hang them and then keep them that way. I guess he haven't asked me because I said I didn't know how to sew "I need a few hours' sleep" he confessed.

"Yes, you must be so tired from working last night," I blurted. I poured some cold porridge oats and I sat down to make braids to Audr, who was immersed in her dolls. Apparently, the dragon kidnapped the prince and the princess was trying to rescue him. She was all a Viking. Eric ate his cold porridge without complaint, then climbed into bed and I saw him fall like a log on the bed.

Me and the kids went to the woods to pick raspberries and Leif found near a log a lot of mushrooms we collected and put aside, because although they were absolutely sure they were edible, I wasn't.

I roasted some onions and boiled some eggs for food. I thought about the possibility of awakening Eric to eat something, but I thought he needed to rest and also he already had enough.

I had never done cakes with flour that were not wheat, but it was all I had. I beat three eggs freshly laid and I made a mental note to track the red tail hen (it had spent five days without laying an egg), I added rye flour, and a block of butter that I had left to melt near the fire. I put a bit of yeast which I used to do the daily bread and which I elaborated myself and I added several tablespoons of honey, I knew Eric had brought sugar form sugarcane from his last trip, but I didn't want to get to rummage through the things I the cold room. I was oiling the container in which I was going to make the cake when somebody knocked at the door.

Dalla, the bitch of the geese, greeted me with a smile that I not returned. I discovered in her thoughts that she had gone to the corral with the hope of meeting with Eric but had only seen the kid.

"Is your master in the house?"

"He's resting. He could not sleep after returning from the trip because yesterday we had a lot of work smoking the fish. You'd realize" She smiled and thought that last night he didn't looked tired. I smiled nervously and I imagine I shut the door in her face of... of... she was pretty!

"The door to my house doesn't close properly. I think it's a hinge, the top one. I would fix it, but I don't have tools. Ask Eric if he wouldn't mind checking it out. I'll pay" She smiled. I can imagine how you're going to pay. To another dog with that bone. The history of clogged sink is very old, older than you, and have a few years.

I saw her carrying a basket. I heard Audr screaming and ran out of the house. Erik had just put a toad in her wool dress by the neck. I took the poor toad out from the scruff of my girl and gave Erik a slap on the ass, he walked away splitting in laughter. Leif gave him a slap on the scruff when he passed by.

"I have brought apples" Dalla shouted to the three of them "Eat them grilled, they are delicious grilled" The children were thrilled, Audr stop whining as Dalla handed the basket to her, she ran to the house and Erik followed her. Leif went to clean the barn "give me the basket back when they finish, and tell Eric that knock on my door when he gets up," she said when we were alone. I returned to the house and gave back his toad to Erik, then I beat him in the ass again because he touched food with dirty hands. The boy protested a second, but then rested his head on my arm and gave me a sad puppy look.

"Don't annoy your sister" I said "and wash your hands. You'll see what I'm preparing. Go and wash the apples" he went out and soaked the apples, sinking them and playing with them. He got them out from the water, put them in Audr's apron, to dry them, and then he washed his hands with soap. He entered and I placed the apples on a tray and put them in the oven below to where my bun was baking at a good time. I bent down, I pointed my cheek, and Erik gave me a loud kiss "Go and play, go."

Eric got up when the sun was falling. Apples and cake aromatized the house and the children did nothing but watch the oven with intensity and annoyance as if they expected that way the bun cook faster.

I took out the cake and the four Northman followed the scent like hyenas pursuing their prey.

"It can't be eaten until it is cool."

"Jo" the four of them expressed. I laughed.

"And where did the apples came from?" Eric asked.

"Dalla brought them for the children."

"Very kind of her" Eric said while ignoring my orders, pinched the cake a bit, and ate it. He was worse than the kids.

"Very kind" Helga had the happy idea of appearing before I jumped to the jugular of her child to make clear what I thought was very unseemly. She came with some brown wool yarn rolled between her elbows. She took my arm and guided me to the loom that until I had arrived, had been covered with a layer of dust. Set one of the threads on a loom and prompted me to imitate. I guess the time to learn to knit had come.

"I need to borrow your mule, mother. We have to plow next week and sow the week after or the autumn's snows won't let us."

"We need the mule too" His mother informed him "it would be better if you ask Olga the red or Freira. They won't sow this year. Olga is alone since her husband died two months ago and her children are still too young to help her with such drudgery and they would probably waste a lot of grain sowing and would end reaping just a little. But she has two oxen. Good animals, if you ask me. You could use her animals in exchange of a percentage of the crop. Would you like me to deal with her?"

"Yes, please" Helga nodded and fixed a thread that I had misplaced "do you want some of the bread that Sookie has made, mother?"

"Sure, but I hoped she would offer it to me."

"But it isn't cool enough! I was planning to tell you..." She laughed and grab up the piece Eric had offered her "And it is not bread is a cake" Eric gave me a piece too, I tore it from his hands, cranky.

"It taste great. Can I bring a piece to Halvar?" She asked. I nodded and she smiled. When she finished her piece, we started sewing lesson.

"Oh, Eric... Dalla came while you were sleep to ask a favor. She asked me to tell you that she wanted you to go to her house"

Helga looked at his son and raised an inquiring eyebrow. I wish I could do it too. However, Helga seemed pleased that he had complied with her orders and Eric, annoyed.

"Well, well... I see you have pick up very good mushrooms. They are delicious in a boiled rabbit stew. Are you okay, Sookie?"

"Yes," I replied, although her question puzzled me. I tried to delve into her mind, but she was thinking about the use she would give to the fabric I was making. Helga left and her son accompanied her out. I continued with the loom until the time I started to make dinner. I heard a hammering and I looked out to see Eric hitting something on Dalla's door a few hundred meters[1] away. It shouldn't be a lot of work because it didn't take more than two minutes to fix what had to be fixed, and Dalla invited him to go inside to "properly thank" him and two of them were lost behind the door.

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><p>[1] Few hundred yards.<p>

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><p><em><strong>Translator's note: <strong>If you don´t leave a review, and only add to favorites or follow my story is like spank my butt and running away._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The next two weeks were like hell. Dalla gave one of the puppies to Audr and children fell at her feet. Each day she brought us apples or varied compotes and Eric spend a lot of time between her legs thanking her. The idiot couldn't notice that Dalla didn't care a crap about his children. She thought she had enough with hers.

Although we could barely leave the house because of the moist and rain, there was much work to do within the home and I almost was going on with the housework. I kept busy grinding flour, rationing food, preparing meals, cleaning, knitting, playing with the children blind man's buff or what's the time Mr. Wolf. I liked to sneak into their thoughts and discover that although they liked Dalla, they continued preferring me.

I finished scrubbing the floor (Eric had been impressed when he saw a mop that I devised and mounted myself, but I guess the cleaning seemed such a small task that he never even asked or said any kind of surprise or admiration about my expertise inventor) and went out to shoot the water. Eric and Dalla were on one side of the house, he stroked a curled lock of her red hair and she laughed like a fool and he gave her a playful slap on the arm. I threw the dirty water to their feet.

"Oh! Woe!" Eric jumped trying to avoid it.

"Hey, you watch out" cried Dalla.

"Oh sorry, I haven't seen you. I was engaged in a song and the work. Don't we have to prepare the grain for sowing, Eric?" I could "hear" the curses from Dalla about me, she thought I was insignificant because I was a slave, but pretty enough to pose a temptation. She had been a widow almost a year and Eric was a good bite. He owned good and abundant land, one of the best farms in the village, he was a skilled sailor, an extraordinary warrior, an exceptional lover, and was the future head of the village. It was a shame, according to her, he had burden of his children. I hated her with all my being.

Eric went to set the last points of its agreement with Red Olga about the oxen. The kids and I ate a broth made with hare bones that were lefts over from the morning, a parsnip and withered carrot that remained in home and some bread. It was not much, but they had a good evening snack and it was hot. I made sure that when Eric arrived, he ate everything cold. I don't think he deserves any better. He warmed his own bowl, knowing by now that I left him the cold meals and dinners on purpose, and he ended up eating for dinner a jumble of bread crumbs without any broth. Audr hummed as she put ribbons in her doll's hair, Leif and Erik were playing a board game that I think is similar to chess.

"Tomorrow we'll go to the field, we'll spend the day sowing. Set food for all of us for a couple of days. We'll need all hands available" Eric said.

"Will Dalla come with us? I asked sarcastically.

"Enough!" the kids all jumped and looked at him with fear "I realize you do not like her, but you're not who..." Audr rose from the ground and hugged my legs.

"I ask if I should set food for her too" Seeing his daughter calm him a little.

"Just will be the five of us" he continued swallowing his cold soups like I was eating toads. After dinner he went to prepare the seeds for the next day. We were going to plant barley and rye and some oats, then we would collect in the summer when it was ripe. I lay in bed that he had prepared for me two days after arriving, so I didn't have to sleep with the kids, if I didn't wanted, and I was glad to see that he didn't leave home.

We left the next day before dawn. I grabbed Audr and wrapped her in a lot of furs and I put her to sleep near her brothers, who were seated between the bags and farm implements in the car. Eric had tied the oxen to the cart even before I had woke up, he guided them to the edge of town by foot and there he went up by my side. He guided the oxen with a birch twig in his hand. I smiled at the thought that he should have done something not very different while leading a bull as an offering to the maenad.

"You seem happy" He told me. I smiled. Sure I was. I was next to him and Dalla was in her house.

"I am. I like to work" Eric giggled "By the way, about Dalla..."

"I told you yesterday that you have nothing to say on that."

"Yes I have" Eric looked surprised at my boldness and my tone.

"I think you don't know your place, woman."

"I think the one who doesn't know is you," I spat "Helga left me in the care of your children when you weren't here. And if you do something that can hurt them, is mine business also," And you are supposed to be drooling over me and not her, I thought.

"I'm not stupid. I know that Dalla doesn't care about my children, or even cares about hers."

"So ... I cannot understand it."

"They are not her children for real, they are her husband."

"No, I meant, if you know how she is, why you are still with her..." Eric laughed. I wish I had the courage to put my hand on his throat and get his uvula out of his mouth like in a cartoon.

"You haven't looked at her very well" Sure I had looked at her. If we were in Louisiana in the twenty-first century she would be only one more fat size 44 woman. But apparently, in this age and time she was very sexy. And her red, loose, bright and sharply defined, despite not using conditioner or a mask curls and her marble white skin, despite not using anti-wrinkle, and her plump heart shaped lips despite the absence of the lip gloss and her stupid blue eyes and her long eyelashes though not wearing mascara also seemed to be the hottest thing in the world. I was so pissed "you are jealous?" I snorted "you are not that bad" I wish you to be struck by lightning and be fried right now. I got out of the car and started walking beside the oxen "You'll get tire"

I pout "What are you thinking?"

"In put you one of this ox horns in the ass" Eric twisted laughing. He let go the bridle, went down the carriage laughing, took me like a sack of potatoes while I kick him in the back (he gave me a pat on the ass) and he put me on board again.

Eric lit a fire at the moment we arrived to the sowing field. I put the pots on the floor and helped the boys to tie the oxen. They were formidable animals. Eric was placed next to an animal to put the yoke and from the other side, I noticed that my chin barely reached the back of the animal. He fixed down the plow with a wooden hammer (I think I have already said how handsome he is hammer in hand) and then jumped on top of the wood. He put up to his three children, who were with laughter when they herded bulls, and he gave a few grains to put in my apron for sowing with him.

The animals began to walk and lift the earth, they had troubles starting, but once they didn't stopped again. I could hear them mooing for the effort, no one whipped them, the breed and commitment to move forward was pushing them. The children jumped up wood to get the metal delve into the earth and stir it better. I was spreading the seeds and Eric, with a hoe in wood and metal, hid the seeds.

We stopped for lunch a few minutes. We ate some smoked herring on oil bread.

"Leif" I called "Have you seen the pigeon's nest that was by the road?" The child nodded "Bring them to me and I will make a delicious soup to eat. Now go" Leif run with Erik behind him.

"I want to go too!" Audr protested as she began the race with her short steps.

"No, you stay here" I stopped her "See those twigs? Pick them up and throw them into the fire. But be careful not to touch it, huh?" I gave her a kiss and rub cleaned a little amount of mud from the cheek. Eric and I continued our job until the children returned.

"There were two eggs and I've gobbled them" Leif said.

"He didn't give me a taste" Erik complained.

"You must share, Leif. What you've done is very bad," I said.

"But I'm the one that has left the skin climbing up to the tree" And he showed me a scratch that he had get from bark of the trunk which went from the elbow to the wrist "Look, look, what pigeons I have brought you" he said and handed me the two poor pigeons with twisted neck.

"Come I'll clean you the blood" I dipped a cloth in warm water and cleaned his wound carefully. He tried to be the tough guy and don't protest because Erik was waiting to laugh at him and I blew his wound so that it doesn't hurt too much. We pluck and clean the pigeons and I started to make dinner while the children helped their father. I didn't want to think about how Eric kidneys would be and how tired he would be, so I poured a jug of mead and approached him.

"Here," I said. He gulped. I was engrossed in the rhythm of his nut up and down the throat, the beads of sweat that were lost in his tunic's neck, in the way that a few drops of liquor fell from his lips.

"Thank you."

"You need a shave."

"I like to wear my hair, beard and mustache long" I smiled: a Viking.

"I'd like you more" I take the jug from him and went back to make food. I opened pigeons and wiped inside, cast them into the boiling water and added salt. I put a frying pan, I poured oil Eric had looted in France and four cloves of garlic, I fried oat bread I had left made the night before and I got it out when it was browned, also removed the pan from the heat.

When the sun was high, top, took out the pigeons from the broth, cleaned the flesh and left the bones apart for another broth. I mixed the oil and garlic with the broth and meat without bones, and I started to warm up again, I broke two eggs when it began to boil and finally added the croutons.

The sun had already begun to go down when I called them to come and eat. Eric put a bucket of water and some hay to the steers while I was serving dishes, warning children to be careful not to burn. I served a giant plate to Eric who took it with both hands and sat down on a stone. He sniffed and looked at his children, usually talkative, quiet and eating with delight.

"As pigs that just got their food" He said to the kids and laughed.

"Don't tell them these things. Is it good?"

"A lot" Leif answered me with his mouth full. Erik chewed on both cheeks and Audr ate more slowly, but because I was giving her. I didn't want her to burn.

"Can I eat or I have to wait until its cold?" Eric asked me with a smirk he wasn't reproaching anything, he was just having fun.

"Eat it, eat now, it's hot." We ate between smiles and sounds of gastronomic pleasure. I did between spoonfuls to small Audr. The three men ate two dishes and there only was a little left over which Audr and I ate. We continue to work hard, but more animated. Audr we sang songs and I already got to know me, I accompanied her. They laughed at me because I didn't sing very well, and I swore to them that mine thing was to dance, and Eric told me, I had to prove it.

We stopped working when the sun began to set. Eric nailed a pair of thick branches on the ground few minutes before the darkness of the night was done. I helped him take over a few woolens and some furs and put a bed of dry straw inside. We were exhausted and ate just a few bites: grilled onions and a slide of bacon. The kids went to bed and I stayed up for a while admiring the stars. The moon would be full soon and I had good visibility. Eric approached the animals to the fire and tied them to the cart. My eyes began to get wet and I started to yawn.

"I'm going to sleep. Do not you come?" I asked. He must be exhausted, but still staring at the fire.

"It's a tempting invitation, but I stay here" He smiled and motioned me with his head for me to go to sleep. He leaned back against the rock on which he had sat for dinner, he covered his head with a woolen cloth and a fur above it. He closed his eyes and sighed when falling asleep. I approached him and kissed him on the forehead and on the tip of the nose. I noticed that underneath the layers of fur the handle of his sword glittered and by his side he had prepared his bow and arrows.

I woke up with a frost face. I heard wolves howling in the distance and I got chills. I Got out of bed and saw Eric, he was in the same position I had left him when I had gone into the tent.

I looked into the trees trying to guess whether something moving through the logs.

"Ah!" I turned suddenly and I bumped into Eric, who had caught my arm and scared me to death.

"What are you doing awaked?"

"I... I heard the howls and... and..." The ox snorted uneasily by the sounds of wolves, startled me and I grabbed his arm.

"Wolves do not approach men, they know they stand to lose."

"Not with me" I said thinking about Alcide. Eric laughed. He brushed a strand of hair from my face and I felt his warm breath on my face. His beard tickled my neck.

"Go back to bed" He was going to kiss me, or I was going to kiss him. It did not matter. The ox was removed and grabbed strong the fabric on his chest, taking another jump. He chuckled.

"Sookie?" Audr little voice brought us out of our moment.

"What's happening, sunshine?" she went out rubbing one of her little eyes and dragging her doll "Come here before you catch cold" I opened the robe I had on and I pulled her against my chest "Are you afraid the wolves?" She shook her head.

"Only the very large ones" She confessed "You are not going to kill little wolves, right?" she asked Eric.

"Of course not. Come, go back inside."

"What if they enter the tent and eat me" Audr asked.

"They will not. Because I sit at your feet and it may not happen."

"Okay, but do not kill puppies."

"Of course not", he pushed us inside with soft but authoritative hand. I stepped aside, leaving Audr and Erik between Leif and me. Eric stoked the fire and sat down at the opening that was the entrance of the tent, as he had promised. He stood there, wrapped in furs, sword in hand. Audr fell asleep in a second. A new howl startled me and I felt Eric's hand slid under the covers, he grabbed my foot and his hand reached for my ankle to my calf. He gave me a squeeze and I relaxed hopelessly. Hand back down to my foot and stayed there all night. I think I have not slept so calm since Grandma was alive.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

We returned home the next evening. Eric had to yield to our pressures, since he preferred spending the night in the field and travel by day. But the kids and I had wanted to go home and sleep in our beds, especially after two long days of hard work. The village was not far, but just six kilometers[1] that separated us from home became an hour and a half away at a slow ox pace.

The house was freezing when we arrived. Eric used a flint to ignite the home and after a few minutes a mighty fire was burning inside the house. We had not finished leaving things when the doorbell rang.

"Oh, it's you" I didn't have to be kind with Dalla.

"Where is Eric?"

"He went down to Olga's to return her animals."

"I know, I've seen him. But it had been half an hour ago since he left"

"The oxen are slow," I wasn't to withstand Dallas nonsense and stupid suspicions.

"You are very rude" She spat. I rolled my eyes.

"If that's all you have to say, I'll tell you Eric when he comes back that you're looking for him..." I tugged desperately to close the door. She put one foot in between the door and the door frame, she pulled the door away, and I trod her and she slapped me. She pulled me by the hair. Leif ran up and grabbed her arm, she kept pulling and I swear I thought she would pluck my hair by root as a Mohawk warrior, but Leif bite her on the arm and she hit him in such a way that his ass ended a meter[2] away.

"_You, old fat cow!_"[3] I jumped on her and tried to pull her hair, she was two heads taller than me but I didn't care. I was about to beat her when a very strong hand grabbed me by the neck and pulled me away, an equally powerful force pulling Dalla in the other direction. Eric stood between the two of us, Leif came running and hugged me.

"What is happening?" he roared.

"Your slave has insulted me and attacked me" Dalla defended herself.

"That's not true" I yelled at Eric, but I detected in his mind he thought me very capable. My aversion to his lover wasn't a secret. My eyes filled with tears and I know I pout "You do not believe me."

"That does not matter. Why was my son on the floor?"

"She pushed him!"

"He bit me!"

"She was hitting Sookie, father."

"She is a slave" Dalla reminded the older Northman.

"But... but..."

"She's a slave, Leif. Go inside you both" Eric told us "Now I take care of you." My tears went down my fade when I saw Dalla's triumph face, a victory that Eric had served her in tray.

"She needs a lesson" the witch said as she walked away.

"You too, go home. Don't look for me again"

"But..."

"Or you'll find me" I felt that the heart will left my chest of happiness, although no one could claim victory. I heard his thoughts and saw that Eric didn't end with his relationship Dalla because of me or Leif, but because he was tired of her. She begged him and he shook her off. It was pretty humiliating. Leif closed the door and waited for Eric join us.

I jumped out of my seat as Eric came in, and he made it like a gale. He slam the door so hard that Audr and Erik took shelter behind my skirt, but Leif stood in front of me. I put a hand on his shoulder and push him away, also walked away from the other two children and with arms in my hips I stand in my best battle position. He looked at me and thought that he wanted to kiss me. He thought that if he punished me, then he would have to compensate me and would do it by making love to me until I passed out. I let out a moan and Eric get that sound like one from fear. His hand went to his face and massaged his temples, a gesture that had not ever seen him do.

"I never want you to do something like that again" He said simply. He went to his bed to get laid and didn't said anything else. I heard him thinking that the best thing to do was to end his relationship with Dalla because she doesn't like his children and I do, Dalla wasn't part of the family and I was, and because he didn't like her, like he liked me.

The next day started as usual. I giggled when I saw Eric urinating against a tree; and don't think that I'm freak, I liked watching him in his mundane ritual every morning. He approached the oak barrel, undressed and proceeded to his morning wash. I sighed and decided went out to the street, I looked his ass for a while, as gorgeous as ever and when he turned, I turned my face and went on my way.

"Good morning" I said with my head held high.

"Good morning. Sookie!" I braked and I turned around to look at him. He was drying himself. It seems that his total lack of shame to be bare is an old thing.

"Do you need anything?"

"Do you know how to shave?" he caught me creeped out and as always, I shook my head "You'll have to learn. When we eat breakfast, put water to be heated, I'm tired of the beard" he smiled at me and I smiled back.

Eric sat on the wooden bench and leaned back on the table when finished eating. Children went to do their chores. Audr, to collect the flowers that grew near the stockade, Erik, to set traps for rabbits near the fence and Leif to clean the barn and feed the pigs.

"Do you like to do on the street?" he asked.

"No, here we're o.k."

"Try not to make me many scars" stuck my tongue out and he laughed "Follow the hairline and" taught me the movement "never against the grain."

"Yeah, yeah... _I've seen it in the movies**[4]**" _I said "And my grandmother shaved my grandfather" I remembered that I still had the knife and sharpener at home. Eric taught me a few new words in Old Norse that day while he sharpened very well the metal blade. He washed his face with hot water and began to rub the soap against his blond beard, stopped him before he started to get too much foam.

"Let me" My grandmother held an exhibition in the parish on the lifestyles of Southern society before the Civil War. Section of furniture and utensils of daily use, the instruments were used for shaving (assigned to the exposure by my grandmother) with an information sign that there was an explanation of how it was done. I remembered perfectly. I placed a cotton cloth soaked in hot water over Eric's face and made a sound of satisfaction, so obscene that I felt myself getting wet. After a few minutes, I removed it and put a little oil I had done it a few berries picked in the forest one day I went with the kids to look for mushrooms. He said nothing. Then I lathered his beard until oil and foam left it even softer than it already was.

I brushed the hair from my face, I approached him, I stroked his jaw and placed the knife in his neck. I looked into his eyes and saw him watching me intently. I was placed between his long legs open. I was so long since I tangled in them no...

"Am I o.k. here?" perhaps it was better if I do it from behind.

"There you are wonderful" He said. I started to move the knife down, and his hair fell like angel hair on his clavicles. I figured that shaving him was like when I epilate myself with that same blade (Had you thought that because women here wouldn't do it I'll go around with hair in my legs?)

"Do not you want to close your eyes for a while?" I asked.

"Why would I want to do that?" I got into his head and found his thoughts. He thought I had soft hands and that I smell good. He liked me to lean on him. He fantasized about the option to move an inch his head and his nose and his mouth sunk in between my breasts. He was convinced that underneath the horrible woolen dresses, proper to slaves, I was a beauty. He was sick of imagining me naked. I was getting nuts on the thought he lifted his arms, remove his hands from his thighs and grab me by my hips. Eric seemed to be having a similar thought. He fought against the idea of getting up the dress and caress my legs. I lifted his chin to shave the neck, I bent and saw that his dick was hard. I dropped against him further and with no more hesitation, he placed his hands on my waist. He moved them to my hips as I shaved one side of his face. His hands are big, so even the palms rested on my hips, his fingers squeezing my butt.

"What are you doing?" Leif was watching us from the doorway. I pulled away from Eric and I showed him the knife to the child, my heart pounding.

"I shave his beard" I scratched my eyebrow nervously. Leif stared at his father with angry eyes and at me with suspicion. He was thinking about talking to his grandmother again, "Want to see how I do it?" He didn't want to, he rather go to play, but he stayed to watch us. Eric didn't touch me again.

When I told him I was over, he got up and washed his face with hot water, making a gesture of burning. He raised a wood from floor, pulled out a key and opened one of the trunks which lay in the corner of the house which I had never seen open. I guessed over his shoulder that kept things there Audd, his wife. He took a silver mirror, lovely, reminded me that one the Beast gives Bella in the Disney movie. Who knows from who he had stolen it.

"Not a single wound" he said looking himself on the mirror "Magnificent. Here, keep it, women are vain by nature and I don't use it"

I grabbed the mirror and glared. "I'm not vain" I said as I touched up bangs "And I think you're pretty flirtatious for a man."

"Do you think?"

"Yes" I looked at my hair "My hair tips are perfect" I commented "The water here is great, leaves your hair soft and shiny. That's why you have that wonderful hair despite so many years..."

"So many years?" Before I had to tell a lie that sound like an excuse, Audr came looking for me because her doll had broken and hoped I could repair it. It just needed a couple of stitches. Eric and Leif took to the street.

As I sewed the little girl's doll and she paid attention, I could hear Eric and Leif arguing the other side of the door.

"Why do you do it?" Leif asked "You'll screw up it, you always screw up everything... I do not want you to mess around!" I understood Leif, the child loved me dearly, and it was easy to see it in his gestures to me. But he must have loved his mother more. It must be hard to see your father giving his attentions to another woman who isn't your mother. Either way, that Leif had to do to the idea of me being with his father, first I had to be with Eric. No use to torment the child if his father and I weren't together.

* * *

><p>[1] 3mi 1281.7yd<p>

[2] More than a yard.

[3] She said this in English.

[4] She said this in English.


	8. Chapter 8

**Translator's note**: Sorry if I had taken so long to update... here is chapter 8

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8<strong>

Eric didn't get too close to me or flirted with me in the next four days. Twelve days after our sowing a huge tremendous storm happened and we discover with horror that we had a couple leaks at home.

Eric climbed to the roof the morning after, he already had a beard with a few days growth and he was gorgeous. I grieved a little when he began to lift the layer of green grass growing on our "hobbit house" to find the point of leaking. He sent me to Freira's house to get a bucket of tar which they used to waterproof boats and I took half a dozen chicken eggs and a pair of quails to pay her.

Freira's husband was a sailor, had left a week after Eric returned with a couple of ships to Greenland's seas, it was winter and they went searching seals and polar bears. She had a small boat which she set sail to the sea on good days, along with her eldest son, who was fifteen, and drew fish for them to redeem for other food, as they lacked farmland.

"Good morning" I greeted.

"Hello, beautiful" I smiled and put the eggs on the table.

"Eric told me to come to you for a bucket of tar."

"Yeah, he told me that you have leaks" I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah, it's weird, because they haven't appeared till now. And it has rained."

"It sometimes happens, the ice of the last few days and the grass could have broken the wood" I pulled out a bucket full of black tar. It stank.

"I brought half a dozen eggs, I hope it's enough."

"Sure, don't worry. I would have preferred a beautiful bread, but... okay. Hey, here" she handed me a motif that men used to be knotted woolen tunics "Eric left it last night at home. You can tell him..." she lowered her voice "if he comes tonight, to do it later" I nodded, not knowing what to say. I liked Freira, at least so far. She had always been nice to me and the children, and had never considered this because of Eric. I discovered in her head that she and Eric had been together sometimes, but it was never anything serious and never would be, and that's what she liked about sleeping with Eric.

Dalla wasn't like Freira, not at all. She was as nice to children as when she wasn't sleeping with Eric, I mean she was very nice. I was a bit annoyed that Erik and his young son, Gunnar, play together. Even so, I made a good size ball of wool and sewed furs to keep it isolated until it was a fairly decent ball. Kids enthused their new toy.

The more I lived with them the luckier I felt. It was true that Erik and Leif helped in the sowing and taking care of livestock or going out looking for mushrooms or gull eggs, but they also had plenty of time to play and Eric never interrupted their fun time. I was lucky because other children in the village had to help their mothers cleaned pigs, and worked since very young doing chores for other families as collecting firewood or walking goats and pigs in exchange for a wage or payment in species. My kids could be kids.

I had been sixty-four days with the Vikings, I had improved a lot with the language and was used to the sober and simple lifestyle. Although I think I wouldn't have endured without the kids. I missed the sun and sometimes I missed my vampire.

It was a nice day, running a damp breeze that carried the smell of sea salt and the sun shone. Later we would go out into the woods to look for mushrooms. I was going to milk the goats when Eric stopped me.

"Don't go near the pig" he shouted at me.

"What's up?"

"The female is in heat" Eric took the chickens and goats from the barn and closed the various fences separating the animals and tied the horse. He carried a huge barrel onto his back and laid it on the floor of the barn.

"I want to see" the small girl said. He carried Audr and sat her on top of the barrel, then grabbed me by the waist, lifted me over his head and laid me on the horse. Erik and Leif also took a place above the woods.

"Don't come down anyone" Eric let in one of the sows that were in the pigsty, outside. The male started screaming like crazy, so loud that Audr and I cover our ears. He opened the cell door and stallion ran, he jumped and climbed beside his daughter and placed her over his shoulders.

The male went over the female with terrifying ferocity. Audr got sacred and me too. Eric give her to me over his shoulders and I grabbed her and hugged her. The suckling pig was mating strongly with the sow while Erik and Leif were talking about massacres and boars. Eric jumped and dived with us in the cubicle of the horse, he climbed the horse gracefully sitting down behind me. He wrapped me with his arms and pinched his daughter's cheeks.

"I do not know why you want to see if you get scared"

"I'm afraid, too" Eric smiled at me.

"The beast cannot resist" he whispered "But men have to restrain with some females, but sometimes we are dying to jump on her and ride her like an animal does" I got all the creeps. I leaned back against his broad chest, and despite the noisy situation, I almost fell asleep against his rhythmic breathing and his hot body.

A while later, Eric left the boar in its place, and left the sow out and brought us down of the horse. I went home to finish preparing breakfast and knitting a wool fabric. Eric had asked me if I was knitting the sail of a boat, because of the dimensions, but I said no, it was a shade for the house. I finished it at dusk and hung it so that a corner of the long room that was our home, was isolated from the rest.

"Now I can wash up, and you won't have go out" I told Erik and Leif. They snorted. They didn't understand my demure and my modesty. Like his father, had no qualms about walking through the world in the buff.

The next morning dawned cold but clear. I completed my ritual of early morning chores with a little bitterness because Eric had returned visiting Freira on the night. I went to milk the goats and pull out the oatmeal that had put to boil, I removed them from the water and put them a spoonful of honey on top. I smiled and let them cool and dry until my children were awake. Leif was the first to sit at the table, as usual. The last was Audr, I helped her to get dress because she was still too little and because I liked to.

I poured them a bowl of hot milk and I invited them to try out my latest creation. Children used to be impressed with my culinary skills, so attacked oatmeal like lions to hyenas. Eric came later, he had gone to take a look at the field that we sow a week ago. He was in a good mood, the bastard. He sat at the table and I gave him a bowl of cold milk and a piece of stale bread from the previous day. He frowned and reached for the oatmeal. I hit him on the back of his hand.

"It's for the kids."

"So I'm back to get cold foods, huh?" he again reach out and take, not without challenging me with his look, a handful of oatmeal that went directly into his mouth. He chewed challenging me, but left the rest to his children.

"They're delicious, Sookie" Erik commended me.

"Not bad, no" Eric the father said. I wish I had a sharpened stake in hand. I got up and began to drain the lentils I had left in soak overnight. I shook them with excitement and covered with water in a saucepan. I put a little salt and went to the cold room. We were running out of meat. I was about to ask Leif to kill a rabbit to put meat on the food, but I preferred not to. All that we had left was a jerky piece of smoked bacon, and I couldn't put it into the vegetables. I grabbed a basket and put in some mushrooms that I had picked up with the kids yesterday, I covered them with a cloth and left home. I went to the port, where some women changed things for other things. I greeted Freira, she was also disgustingly happy that morning and other girls and boys from the village.

"Hello, Bera."

"Oh, hello, Sookie" she greeted me "How's the roof? Freira told me yesterday that you had a leak" she was an elder woman, about forty-five. But she had smooth skin, perhaps because she lived so close to the sea. She was good to the eyes and she had some extremely sagging breasts because I gathered from what I knew about her, eleven children whose she had had since she started to give birth at fourteen. She was a widow and had been a widow for a long time and she wasn't interested in men. Actually she liked men, but she was afraid to get pregnant again. Apparently it was the type of woman who gets pregnant just with thinking about sex. Freira had no land, but she had livestock and a small garden near the town's fence which provided her with some vegetables like beets, onions, parsnips and carrots. All other things: vegetables, grains and fish she got from trading it in exchange of her wonderful meat.

"I think it is repaired now, but Eric says he won't be sure until it will be another storm."

"You speak our language very well" Ivar her son said. He was a young man of about twenty years, but he was pretty hardened by the harshness of life and he could look older. He didn't like the sea, so he take care of his mother's cattle. He married a young nineteen but she had died at childbirth with her first child a few months later, since then he lived with his mother and hadn't married again. Which was a shame and a rarity, in my opinion, because he was very handsome and hard working. I don't think that he will stay single for a long tame because I had "heard" he is an eligible young man.

"Helga said that you kill an animal a few days ago" I commented to Bera.

"I would had wanted to wait until the weather gets colder, but we needed the meat. And this year our piglets weren't healthy" she lamented. She was worried, poor she, about the quality of their pigs.

"Well, I'm sorry. We also have the pantry empty. I brought these mushrooms" I uncovered them and showed them. I had been there enough time to know the value of things and changes. "I was wondering if you could give me some good bone, or a piece of fresh bacon. Something to throw in the lentils."

"I'm sorry, Sookie, we give out all meat from the slaughter except one piece of ham and a few pieces for us in exchange for one sack of oats and other of barley."

"Here" Told me her son. He handed me a few bones of ham and dry hoof "is not much, and the bones are old, but it's something."

"Thank you" I handed them the mushrooms, but they refused. But I left them for them to taste them at mealtime.

When I came back and started to make lunch, I put into the lentils: one chopped carrot, pig hoof and bone, half an onion and half parsnips. All morning was at slow fire from the chimney with its blop blop impregnated the house with the sweet scent of the food.

It was delicious so I felt bad about spoiling it to annoy Eric, so I gave him a piece of hoof (which was juicy) and a plate of lentils. I made a mental note to thank Bera and her son, the gesture of giving me a few pieces of pork.

That night was freezing cold. Eric set up a pile of logs for the fire and made sure that the beds were dry and warm. He said he was going out for a while and if I wanted, I could sleep in his bed with children. I didn't want to sleep between the same furs he did, because they gave off his scent and it was very painful for me, but it was cold and it would be good for kids that we slept together.

I lay awake thinking about it, now he would be fucking Freira against a wall or above a barrel, or at her comfortable bed. I knew he liked me, I had heard in his mind, but apparently his interest shouldn't be too great, because since he was with us he had already been with two women in "his bed" and none of them was me.

It saddened me think about my vampire occasionally I seemed to perceive through our blood bond a wave of love, concern, anger... but that did nothing but torment me further.

Eric the vampire had developed a fatal attraction to me at the minute one we met. From there, it was all over. But Eric the Viking seemed not more interested in me than in any other woman, like Eric the vampire hadn't been interested in a woman more than another until I came along. Me with my fairy blood.

I told Eric I'll be with him until I find out if the blood bond was all that was between us. For months I had feared that my feelings and Eric's, were due only to the influence of our blood. Now, through blood, Eric the Viking felt about me the same interest as the vampire Eric felt for any fang banger. For human Eric, the man, I wasn't special at all, therefore, according to the horrible logic of my thoughts, which makes me especially for the vampire I love is not me, but my blood.

I wiped the tears and the throbbing headache triggered most times because of being strong and continually mourning, I fell asleep.

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><p><strong>Translator's note<strong>: Just remember if you follow or favorite I appreciate that but is like spanking my butt and running away.


	9. Chapter 9

**Translator's note**: This time I haven't taken so long to update, and I promises that I will update as soon as I get 10 reviews for this chapter.

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><p><strong>Chapter 9<strong>

The next day I was horrible, I had bags under my eyes while Eric looked spectacular or more gorgeous than normal. What Freira was giving him was making the bastard feel wonderful.

We were eating a good breakfast, because the day had turned to be icy, and cloudless.

"Tomorrow we'll go and clean the weed from the field, today and tomorrow we could take a last look at mushrooms, before the snow that's is coming buries them"

"How do you know that it will snow soon?" I asked.

"These cloudless days after the storm ones advertise of the snow on these lands. It's like the calm before the storm" He told me "Audr came to earth in one of these days" I stared at him with the wooden spoon halfway to my mouth.

"You mean it's Audr's _birthday**[1]**_?"

"The, what of Audr?"

"The anniversarium" I told him in Latin "of Audr's birth"

"Oh, yeah" he sipped his milk "It will be five autumns since she was born."

As the boss had planned, we went looking for mushrooms at midmorning. I picked so many wild strawberries and also we were lucky enough that Audr see a hare and that it lead us, not without some troubles, to Eric the father, Leif and Erik the young, to its burrow. So that day we ate a terrific hare's broth with some parsnips, which is what I used instead of potatoes. Eric keep the mother and the kits in a wooden cage to take care of them until we could eat them with a good size.

In the afternoon I started the plan I had devised during the morning. Audr, children and me deserved feast. And the birth of the baby of the family was so a happy and wonderful event that deserves a celebration.

"Can I borrow your hammer and your... your...?" I don't know how to say chisel in Nordic "that" I said pointing it. Eric was fixing a pole of the stable. It was a shame pulling away the hammer from his hand because the bastard was spectacular. He gave it to me and followed me, thinking about what I would do with that. I went inside the house and grabbed a birch twig had meticulously selected. It was like a magician's stick, but in miniature, the size of a pen. I placed the chisel and hammer up, closed my eyes and when he was lowering his hand with all my strength, Eric took my wrist.

"I will do whatever you want to do."

"Oh, thank you. Can you open a round hole in the middle of this little piece of wood about this size" I indicated "and file it? At its thickest point, please" Eric grab the wood, took it, turned with a tool similar to a spiral bit, and opened the hole I had asked. All the while he still judge me with his eyes. I don't have to know anything about Viking Tools!

He filed it, introduced the index finger in the hole to check it doesn't scrape and handed it to me.

"Happy?"

"Yes, a lot. Thank you" I turned and opened one of the trunks to which I have access and started pulling ribbons and bows in different colors. Eric thought he couldn't left his task for too long, it wasn't important how curious he felt about my madness. Also thought that being a woman, it wouldn't be important neither. I stuck my tongue, he was surprised and left with a frown, wondering what the reason I had made that gesture was?

I started crimping ribbons on the stick and then waved to see if it worked. I was sure that the little Audr would love to go dancing and jumping with them. Also, I could teach her some of the tricks girls in artistic gymnastics use. She would go crazy. I finished a new rag doll too and let some other things settled. I started making dinner late and I had to hide everything done between Eric's straw and wool bed to keep children of seeing it. Eric didn't went out of the house that night and he was very concerned that the house was cozy. He glanced at me more than once wondering what I was up to. He also thought that he liked how my eyes sparkled in the light of the fire and wondered if the bare, sweaty skin would shine in the same way. I pricked with the needle which I was using to embroider a linen cloth.

I told Erik, Leif and Audr the stories of the three little pigs and the Sleeping Beauty. Leif heard the first story paying attention and fairy tale with less attention. Eric stopped me and told me not to tell that nonsense to his children. According to him, those weren't "stories for future Viking warriors." So instead he told us how in one of his trips he had get four polar bear furs, waiting, attacking and fighting with the sword and shield with the bears and how one of them had been nothing more nothing less, the bear that had claimed the life of Asgeir the Barbarian (a local legend). I covered Audr's ears when he began giving details about blood and guts.

Erik didn't get to sleep until the middle of the night while Eric was snoring soundly.

I got up early. I heard Eric bustling outside the house. I took a wool fabric over and greeted him with bleary eyes. He was preparing the horse.

"Are you leaving?"

"We are leaving" he said "We have to clear the land before the snows arrive, avoid that when the first snow comes weeds damage the grain. Ensure that they haven't germinated at wrong time or it'll freeze and we'll lose the harvest."

"And you're going to make me walk while you are going in a war horse trotting?"

"You'll go over it with me" he threw some bags that carried farm tools inside and the horse complained, I could swear that it stared so bad his owner that its eyes flashed fire for a second.

"Why don't you hook it to the cart instead of loading it like a common mule?" Both man and beast snorted at once offended by my words.

"It's a war horse! I'm not tying it to the fucking cart" The horse scratched the earth with the hull, agreeing with its owner. I went to the stable ruminating.

"You're same jerk with horse and with Corvette" I whispered "I don't have time for you" I shouted "I have a lor of things to do."

Eric protested, but ignored him. I prepared breakfast for everyone and I ate a hurry runs. Eric tell me again that we had work to do in the field, and as much as it seduced me the idea to go riding with him on my back, or hugging his body, I had a birthday party to prepare. So he ended up taking to Leif.

"Be here on afternoon" I told them "Here, honey" I gave Leif a bag with food for the day and made him bend over to give me a kiss.

"Did you also put food for me, or not, woman?" Eric believed me quite capable of leaving him without eating, he was thinking that I was on it.

"I was hoping you bite your tongue during the journey and swallow it?" I gave a scourge to the horse and they went out to brisk trot. "Share the cheese and bacon!" I turned back and mentally organized my morning "Erik, I have many things to do, would you will keep an eye on your sister, right?" The boy nodded.

"But only if you made oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow" I wriggled his hair and kissed his forehead.

"Just like your Dad. We have to cut your hair a little, it's very long."

"The Vikings wear long hair."

"Not in my house" I concluded. Erik crossed his arms and gave defeated. I spent all morning going back and forth, changing rabbits for apples, alerting mothers to let their children go or take them to my house a little bit in after noon, and setting everything ready. I regretted not telling before Helga, because as soon as she found out what I was planning she was glad to come to help me with everything.

Halvar and Helga came to eat at home that day, so I prepared roasted rabbit and chicken, parsnips and a plate of peas with bacon. An hour later when the sun was in its highest point, we started to receive visitors and see some children arrive. Mothers didn't know very well to what they came, but I explained that it was a party due to the celebration Audr's fifth autumn since she was birth. The girl received her gifts, mine and hers grandmother: red wool dress and a new butterfly-shaped brooch. She got angry when I didn't let her wear them because I hope that with all the traditional games that I had prepared, the children were going to get very dirty. Soon the children understood the concept of "Anniversary Party" and parents too, because they started to bring things and join the celebration.

The party was being a success, I prepared milk with hazelnut butter, apple pies and strawberry cake, milk, rye and barley bread, there was beer and mead the last was also lowered for children (Erik and Audr were drinking goat milk and that's all) I don't think Audr deserve less than this party feast.

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><p>[1] She said this in english.<p>


	10. Chapter 10

**Translator's note**: I promised to update when I got to 10 reviews, so here is it.

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><p><strong>Chapter 10<strong>

I walked around blindly with the blindfold over my eyes. Erik and Audr encouraged me and so did the other children and women, who weren't contesting the sack race.

Several children pulled my dress, and I laughed, I could hear their little voices in my head and knew exactly where they were. Audr not know whether to approach me and pull my skirt or stay safe where she was with her new doll. Erik approached me by the back and pinched my ass.

"Erik!" I protested "Wait till I catch you, sassy tadpole."

I felt an overwhelming presence, a powerful mind and it was completely out of the general festive stream. Eric approached me grumpy. I played along and pretended that I caught him. I had arms down because I was chasing children, so the first thing my hands found was with his lower abdomen. I placed my palms on his abs and I was going up through the chest till the shoulders, feeling him, and I was there a few seconds, touching, then went down his neck and I noticed that he got the willies. Me, too, I was removing everything. I stroked his face, flicks and went back to the shoulders.

"Gotcha" I said. I took off the blindfold and smiled. He was white faced and I realized he was catching his breath, not only due to my touch, but because something else: He had heard the screams in the distance and had come galloping, thinking that we were under attack. He had galloped with a heavy heart, fearing the worst. I bit my lip and looked down.

"Daddy, Daddy, look at the doll Sookie gave me. And look what a toy" she show him the wand with the ribbons hooked. Eric looked at it very serious and the girl took shelter behind my skirts. He was thinking that we couldn't do such a waste of food.

"Not all food is ours" I said "The other mothers have also brought things."

Olga had brought a piece of roast rabbit, Finna had brought some apples, Geirlaug had brought one rye bread and one oil bread, Vilborg had brought beer and Vigdis the mead. Helga had brought a good size goatling that was roasting in the fire and each of the fifty women who had come not only mothers of children, had brought something. In the end, the birthday had become a local celebration.

Eric took two steps back and a couple of kids slipped between his long legs, laughing and running to and fro, playing tag.

"Don't you think we should celebrate that Audr has been with us for five autumns?" I said. He didn't nodded, but he was convinced. I replaced the blindfold and returned to the game. I caught one of Grim's grandsons, who had, according to Eric, the best sheep in town and prodigious woodworking hands.

Eric began leaning against his own house, away from the party to regain his confidence. He reached out to catch an apple that was floating in a basin of yew and metal and he received a scream of protest in exchange.

"What's going on?"

"You can't catch with your hands, father" Audr said.

"And how do you expect that I take them?" Audr pointed her mouth with her small, plump, dirty finger. She chuckled and her eyes shone in anticipation of seeing her father playing around at her party.

"Look, I'll show you" the girl gave him her doll and her new ribbons, leaned over the water (which I had been careful enough to heat and keep warm throughout the party), and began to try to catch the apples, scurrying, sinking and fleeing from her small teeth. I laughed and bent down beside her.

"Let me" I picked up my hair aside, I looked at Eric's eyes, and lowered my head to the water surface. I chose an apple, I went to it with my mouth, and I sucked it then snap the tooth. I raised my head, red apple in mouth. Audr applauded. I took it out and laughed, gave it a bite and handed it to the girl. Eric followed me with his eyes and licked his lips. I didn't look into his head because I risked making him go into the house and force him to do it right there. Helga took me from my stupor. She took her son by an arm and me on the other.

"Let's play that game the children have played before" she said "Capture the flag... right? Men against women" I nodded and went crazy with the idea.

The men were making their teams, twelve numbers, same we, the women, did. Eric didn't want to play, so instead did Leif, who because of work in the field had lost most fun. I was horrified to see that he was a little bit drunk. I explained the game to the men and they showed excited. We changed a little bit the game and instead of choosing random numbers, we ensure that every woman compete against her man and me, against Ivar.

"Number five" Ulf yelled. I ran picking skirts and watching Ivar, who had taken a second to get out of row himself, we reached the handkerchief and stood there. Lengthen the hand and made a move to take the piece of cloth, after a few seconds of hesitation and nervous laughter, he grabbed it and ran, slipped on a muddy area, and sufficiently destabilized so that it could give scope. I reached him, I grabbed him, we stumbled and fell to the ground. We laughed a few seconds and then he got up and helped me up. I shook the handkerchief to my team so they see the females win. Men booed me and women whistled and shouted. The kids had fun playing what's the time Mr. Wolf.

Helga lost with Leif, who though he was young, had strong and long legs. Sure sign that he would be as tall as his father. A lot of women ended covered by soil with their husbands or boyfriends, giggling, both. They came to say my number and was Ivar who reach me this time, that undo the stalemate and men won. Some of them carried their women are their shoulders to celebrate.

I saw a girl whimpering near the barrel of apples and found that Olaf, a burly troll-like boy, with red hair and beard improper for someone his age, he had taken an apple from her. He was a head and a body taller than me and laughed at me when I demanded him to return the apple to the little one. Not only didn't return the apple, but he took another with his hand, ignoring the game. Eric, who was nearby, intervened. He looked at him sternly, but the kid was not discouraged. And I wasn't surprise, although Eric was older, I had heard Olaf's mother bragging about the time her child knocked a goat with his head. Don't ask me why a woman might be proud of such a thing. Eric grabbed his shoulder and squeezed, the boy kicked in the shin my Viking, but if he was hurt, Eric did not show: he returned the two apples.

Helga made an announcement loudly. She show everyone a doll and a wooden ox that Halvar had carved and told the children that the girl who won the sack race, win the doll, and the boy who won the sack race too, will win the ox. Eric, who had just pay attention to the food and the capture de flag game, seemed to want to contribute with something, spontaneously organized a game for older children: A fight with wooden swords. Ulf, the blacksmith, presented a small metal dagger, a little bit used, but of his own pocket. The boys were excited even more (think adding the knife would not have been necessary because the prospect of showing off in combat in front of their fathers, mothers and brothers and the ability to gain prestige in the fight was enough stimulation for them)

Erik tried to join, but I didn't let him. I didn't care what Eric said. However, Leif was impossible to stop. There were only two other kids about his age.

Ulf, Finna's husband, and Sturla his second wife organized the matches because neither had children that age who participate in the games. Sturla was very young, wouldn't have been more than twenty four and Ulf was an older man, in his early fifties, though he had a wife of only twenty years. He was a good man and a great blacksmith with large financial resources, so she considered herself lucky and happy. They would have a son who would be born at the beginning of spring.

The first match pitted two boys of fifteen and twelve, one of the sons of Bera against one of the middle of Freira. I clapped and I had fun until it got ugly. The fight ended when one of the two abandoned or with the third stroke of the sword in the chest or at the first stroke in the head. Helga told me that the exhibition bouts or challenges had different rules, but at the end, were only children. There was no winner for death and neither could you try to leave the opponent being unable to hold his sword (young ones helped with housework, and a hand or a broken arm meant a pair of helping hands less at home)

The match winner was the young Solvi, who's fifteen, and son of Bera. Only one of the first five bouts was won by the younger opponent. Leif will fight in the eighth match. Eric and Halvar seemed very excited. And Helga and I were also quite nervous. Audr and Erik stood by me in the circle of people around the fighters and encouraged his older brother.

Leif fought a boy of thirteen, who was a about a hand taller, but much thicker and stronger build. His father was Helgi, was one of the two men who accompanied Halvar when he found me. Eric said he had one of the fastest horses in the village. He was a good friend of both. And one of the chief advisers. Halvar's right hand.

Helgi's son beat first, Leif shook him off as he could, putting the shield between them and shielding his head with the wooden sword. But Steinn, that was the young man's name, managed to hit him in the arm... I let out a yelp, but it was turned off by the men's voices. He had hit almost in the shoulder, looking for the neck, if he had hit there Leif would have lost the match.

Leif sought Eric's gaze, he nodded and Leif waited again. Steinn attacked again, but this time Leif used the sword to get rid of the other's lunge, pushed the shield, and hit him with the sword in the leg.

I clapped because they had just get even. The last point would be the final. Leif and his opponent looked each other, gauging what the next move of the other was. Steinn attacked with the shield, clashed first and then raised the sword above his head to hit upon my child the final blow but Leif placed the shield over the elbow slowing the movement and took the tip of his wooden sword into the stomach of Helgi's son. The boy hung his head in shame, and Leif leaped for joy. I did it too, clapped, cried, kissed Audr and hugged Eric excited.

After the second round of matches, which would leave the quarterfinalists, the only kid under fourteen still in contest was Leif.

In the quarterfinals he faced Olaf, which looked like a goblin. He was a bully, a giant, a brute and was nearly five years older than Leif. They had allowed him to participate even though when the spring begin he would be considered an adult.

He attacked Leif a second later they were presented to the public, gave him such a blow that his shield jumped from his arm. Then hit him with the sword in the leg and dropped him to his knees.

"Damn brute" I already had one foot in the ring when two powerful hands, Eric on my right shoulder and the Halvar on the left, pulled me back.

"I like you, Sookie" Halvar said "But you're soft like all women."

"He will crush him!"

"Surely" Eric said "But it would be humiliating for him if you interrupted the fight."

"But is..."

"If he win, he will win with one of the strongest young men of the village, and if he lose, he'll do against..."

"An orc" I interrupted. Halvar chuckled and Eric laughed.

"Come on, Olaf!" his mother shouted from the other side "Show him who's the strongest."

"Come on, Leif!" I shouted "You are more skilled and smart than that troll" people bent with laughter.

"What did you say, bitch?" She shouted me.

"What you heard viper!" Sparks flew between us.

"Give them a sword too!" hefted Helgi. There was more laughter and after that Ulf presented the second round. I took Eric's hand and squeezed it. Olaf looked at Eric and I noticed his evil laughter and his evil eyes. He was going to get his revenge.

"Eric..."

"Chist" he squeezed my hand and told me to look at the fight "Whatever he'll do, he'll do it well. It has already come so far."

Olaf hit his helmet hit with the wooden sword, Leif swayed from side to side, trying to guess where he would hit and how it would be. Olaf had won all the match while attacking with the shield, using brute force, and Leif knew it, I could read it in his small, sharp mind. Olaf charged like a bull, Leif waited for him, but instead of resisting the coup he let I go and turned around at the same speed that Olaf lunged. Leif shield slid down the surface of young orc's shield, Leif turned with agility proper to who isn't a troll with gigantism and with his sword he struck a blow to Olaf head.

"AHHHHH!" I hugged Eric, who smiled and returned the hug. I ran and hugged my little winner. I sucked a peck my apron and I cleaned a wound on his cheek.

"Sookie…" he protested. Everyone cheered.

"The fair winner is my grandson Leif!" Halvar announced lifting the boy's arm "Grandson of Halvar's 'Fearless Rider', son of Eric 'Iron Fist', nephew of Leif 'Strong Legs'" His grandfather told him "Leif 'Giants Killer' today defeated Olaf 'The Orc'" He winked at me and I giggled.

Leif won his opponent on the semifinal. First he struck him in the arm and then he managed to touch his head with the wooden sword, however he lost to his opponent in the final. He won the first point with a blow to the leg, lost the second by a blow in the same way, and his opponent won the third point after hitting him in the back. It was a hotly contested battle and we all were very proud of him, but he couldn't be more disappointed.

Night had fallen and it was time for the little ones go to sleep, it was also the time that the elderly and pregnant women withdrew because despite the fire, at open air was cold.

Before that, Halvar sat us around the fire and told one of his chief stories. I had heard the old Viking stories and I feared that he could tell things unsuitable for children's ears, but Halvar told us an episode of his life when in the Siberian steppe, a night when the moon was growing up, he killed a berserker, completely naked and that had the ability to become bear. I'm sure it was a bear man. The kids and I listened intently and when he had finished the story, the women retired to the children to their homes.

Several young people took their flutes and bone piccolos and started playing while the skald (poet) recited poems to accompany the music. As in all cultures, men preferred to drink, and women to dance. Audr went to bed at Audr protesting and Erik protested even more because we had allowed Leif, a little older, stay.


	11. Chapter 11

**Translator's note**: This is because I get 75 reviews for this translation, so enjoy it...

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><p><strong>Chapter 11<strong>

I was sitting near the fire accompanying the music with clapping when I saw back the fire color ribbons breaking the air and a tiny and unruly body preceding them: Audr was out of bed and went dancing with her toy back and forth, ribbons waving to the beat of the music. Erik was also camouflaged there. I got up, chased for a while and finally I got Audr home. She kept complaining and stirring in her little childish mind, I realized it was best to keep her warm very well and leave her go out and enjoy her birthday, because anyway, she was planning how to escape again into the party after I left her lying. I put her some old Erik breeches, a pair of woolen clothing, a hat of the same material and a layer of fur. She looked like a ball, but she didn't complain. I got a good coat for Erik, who smiled at me with that smile of triumph that looked so like the one of his father. I ruffled his hair and ate him with kisses. I watched the main group of men. Halvar sat in a large chair and around his two henchmen and Ulf were located. They talked about more serious issues mentioned during the evening party and Leif, next to his father, seemed distracted and distressed. He was overwhelmed by his defeat. I approached him and grabbed his hands.

"Helga told me it's not right that a slave dance in public without permission" I said. Leif said nothing "But we can do it if a man invites us. Aren't you going to ask me to dance?" Not that I'm glad to be consider a slave and of course don't consider myself servant of anyone, much less Eric, but it was the best way to get into Leif.

"I do not like dancing."

"We have to please women, Leif" Halvar said, and Eric pushed him towards me. We danced alone while giving spins holding hands and imitating other women. Soon his mood brightened and Erik joined us too. Audr began to spin with ribbons around us. I noticed the intense gaze of someone in my neck, I turned looking Eric's eyes, but I met with Ivar. I saw him approaching and stay a few meters from us. He waited for the song to end and when it happened, came and invited me to dance with him. I did it gladly.

I lift up my skirts and dance. We described semicircles to one side and the other, twice in a row and then we spin in our places and we changed places. The songs consisted of three parts and each part had its own steps, and how will combine them, was a thing of the dancer. But I'm good at dancing, and soon had learned the steps, and added them my grace and my touch (I don't have to be modest in something that I am clearly very well as dancing).

The second part was danced taking a couple of steps forward, almost colliding with your partner, then the same to the back, two to the left and forward and two back, and two to the right and forward and back and again when you gave a couple of slaps that coincided with the end of verse from the skald.

The last part of the song was danced taking two steps forward, then your partner grabbed your hands in his and turned quickly on his feet, changing places, two steps back, two forward and a spin then repeated it, but with two spins. Then we separated the hands and joined palms and hanging in your partner's arm turned your around, and you let it go spinning around once, clapping twice and spin again. The song ended with joined hands and too close bodies. Ivar was a great dancer. We smile while we recovered our breath and waited to the next song to continue. He took a jug of mead and handed it to me. I was going to give my first sip when a hand on my wrist stopped me. Eric took my mug and looked at Ivar with the social superiority he enjoyed and with the degree of marine and war experience he had.

"If tomorrow Sookie is hangover she won't be able to take care of my children" he said "And I guess you won't come to milk my goats or serve me and my family."

"It's just a jug of mead."

"A jug that I don't not allow her to drink. I am her master. And I don't want you to dance with her."

"Sookie has organized all this for your daughter, deserve to enjoy it too"

"I didn't say she cannot dance, what she cannot do is to dance with you again."

"But I want to dance with Ivar" I said and I was dying to see Eric getting some punishment for not having heeded since he came from his journey. What he said about his children was a pathetic excuse, I could read in his mind, he was jealous and didn't like the way Ivar looked at me or the way I looked him, the way he made me laugh and he laughed with me, the way he approached me and I approached him and the way he touched me and I let him touch me. "I..." Eric covered my mouth and grabbed me by the arm, dragging me all the way home "You're hurting me, Eric. You're hateful" I pushed, I pulled his hair and he was gone, leaving me standing there. Ivar didn't approach me, nor any of the other men, out of respect for Eric. But I saw him flirting with the daughter of Helgi of seventeen and a twenty-two a girl whose name I cannot remember. Then he went to the barn with an arm around each one of them.

I wiped my tears and I was there alone and apart whining. Halvar was the only one who approached me.

"Have some mead, dear" he offered. I grabbed it and gave it a sip, the heat got to me to the tip of the toes "Lately, not today, but these weeks, you've been sad, Sookie" I shrugged "Did Eric touch you?" I lowered my head and shook it "Are you sure? To me you can tell" I looked at him and shook my tearful "So if you are like this, it is because he hasn't touched you" I said nothing for a while, and neither did he.

"I met Helga one autumn, when she wasn't twelve springs yet. I was going to reach my fifteenth autumn. As I saw her, I knew she was going to be my wife" I smiled without really knowing what was coming the story of how he met his wife, and he continued with his story "But her father married her very soon to a noble of the continent, one franc."

"So Young?"

"So young" Halvar said "I wasn't considered adult until sixteen. After that, I sailed, I fought, I killed and learned. And two years later I could gather Helgi and other warlike Vikings who accompanied me. We raid her husband's castle on the coast of France and rescued Helga. Then she became my wife, as I had promised."

"I'm glad it end well."

"Understand that Helga doesn't like men who abuse women. When I picked you up, she decided you'd be a gift for Eric and the children. A slave to ease concerns involving children. Then Leif told us... that he saw Eric and he had seen you" I was beginning to understand nothing "You've seen how Eric with women" I snort, a bastard, that was that he was "Leif is afraid that if you fall for him and he leaves you all like leaves everyone, you will stop loving them, as everyone of the others do."

"I wouldn't stop loving the children."

"I realize that. Helga, meanwhile, also feared that if Eric forced you to something you didn't want, you will pay your hatred towards him with my grandchildren."

"I would never do that!"

"I realize that too... and that my son likes you as much as you like him" I felt a little embarrassed and ashamed, and out of place and uncomfortable, and lots more things I never expected Halvar, of all the Vikings, came to talk to me about what Eric did feel or didn't feel.

"Halvar, I..."

"Work it out. I don't care how, but do it. I don't want it to affect the children. Helga will be worried and I won't live in peace because of you" he took his mug of mead and left "damn kids" he muttered when Eric returned after a while, I don't think he would have had time to zilch with these two young women. Halvar left us there alone.

"You can dance with Ivar if you want to" Eric said suddenly, shook my head and I noticed that he said it with a gnashing of teeth "Would you dance with me?" I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders. Eric pushed me from behind, with soft hand and took me to the side of the fire where the last couples danced. There wasn't a lot of people still outside.

We danced a while and then everyone went home. Eric didn't say much, neither I do. I knew from his thoughts that he didn't want me to be angry, but the circumstances were very difficult and to be o.k. with me wasn't easy.

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><p>Do you like it?<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

**Translator's note: **I gave a thankful reply to all the signed Reviews personally. And in this chapter I will do to those that are not signed with a name or those that I can't reply individually. I will also leave a short comment to every review I had. And for everybody wanting Sookie getting desired from another man this was your chapter… Eric is JEALOUS…

ENJOY

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><p><strong>Chapter 12<strong>

It got worse the next day when I went to thank everyone who helped me to make my "daughter's" party a success. I saw Ivar and I spent some time chatting. We talked about Audr's party, about he thought I was a good dancer, about his mother and about their farm (apparently they are worried because they cannot afford to buy a new stud and the one they have is parent or grandparent of their sows, so the piglets they breed are born ill or stillborn) I discovered that he liked me a lot more than I might expect. He thought I was spontaneous, funny, intelligent, hardworking and beautiful. He liked the way I treat Eric's children and thought I would be a wonderful mother and even a better wife. When I got home, Eric, who had been cutting wood, had saw us talking and laughing and he was super-duper pissed.

The next two days were calm because Eric had to go on horseback to deliver a message to Olaf, one of the lookouts who lived some distance from the village and guarding roads, forests and meadows belonging to Halvar's town. The morning when he came back I was on the beach, picking up some seafood that were near the shore, in order to make some vegetables with clams. When I got home, Eric was made a basilisk. Leif and he were arguing heatedly. And I had "heard" around the town that Eric had kick Ivar out violently of his home.

Since Audr's birthday night rumors never stopped. I had become something the people of the town talk about, they were very little used to what they thought was happening: two men fighting over a woman. Apparently it was common for two women vie over one man, at the end of the day, it isn't surprising that a Viking had a wife and some other partner or concubine. I would think it was fatal in another time of my life, but it is true that war and shipwrecks gobble too many men like to limit marriage to a woman. So, while it is common to see several women fight over a man, it is not so much see two men confronted by a woman.

"Are you going to let him take her away?"

"Leif" warned his father.

"But... He's going to take her away!" Leif shouted as I entered.

"What do you want, eh!" shouted my future vampire.

"Hi there" I greeted "What's up Leif?"

"Ivar was here a moment ago" Eric spat me.

"Oh, I'm glad to see you. We are all well, thank you."

"Why does he bring you presents?"

"Have he brought me a present?" I did not insist because I saw the anguish in Leif's face, and same as him, his siblings. "What's happening?"

"He have brought you a piece of sow loin and a huge chunk of fresh bacon" Leif whispered as if someone had read his death sentence.

"Great, isn't it?" I removed my hood "It's starting to snow and I bet the bacon will fit us swimmingly. Where is it?"

"I've rejected it. And I don't want Ivar back here."

"Why have you rejected it?"

"I don't want him to bring anything to this house."

"But it was food! Audr is very thin" It wasn't true, Helga had already mentioned that since my arrival her grandchildren were more beautiful than ever. Audr was thin, but had chubby and tight cheeks "And look at Erik's knees..." My Erik knees were perfectly normal, a little bony, but I'm sure the medium of my children is hyperactive, anything that he eat he would burn in the next hour going to hunt rabbits, pigeons, or climbing trees and rocks. He was a restless spirit "If they eat properly Leif would have won the fight the other night" Actually Leif was almost 1'50 at his ten sprigs, which was really well considering he has yet to growth spurt.

"Okay!" He shouted. He left home and I didn't looked where he was going. I heard the horse out of the stable and I assumed that he had gone back to his secret mission. That afternoon and evening I had to deal with children and the buzzing news which had become the town. I went in the afternoon to walk around the village and change a horrible dead deer horns, Eric had there gathering dust for some fur or pouch, something which ultimately had some use.

I found that the people in town were making bets. If it isn't common to see two men arguing over the same woman (with the women available there), still less do see two Vikings fight for a slave, let alone two Vikings as Eric and Ivar, who were now the two most eligible bachelors/ young widowers in the area. They were handsome, hardworking, good men... Ivar had a farm and a good number of pigs and sheep and Eric had the best farmland in the area. Women do not understand why all the stir at me, while men reminded them that I was a beauty, and since my arrival, my house emanated best food smells in town.

The bets were divided from time to time from Eric to Ivar.

Ivar had in his behalf what Eric had against. People thought that if between my Viking and me nothing had happened in the time we had been living together it was because obviously I wasn't interested. While with Ivar they had seen me dance and chat happily. However, they felt that the love I had to Eric's children was his best chance in it.

The only clear by whom she had bet was Dalla. By late afternoon the pros had opted Ivar side: not load children with a good farm, possibility of acquiring land, small garden next to the fence of brown earth it drew two quarterly harvests of sweet onions, and my apparent attention. Some tried to pump me when they saw me on the street or away from home, but I wouldn't get into the struggle, I didn't even know what I wanted.

I knew what I didn't want, and didn't want Ivar, although I was very flattered and I liked him. But, fortunately or unfortunately, my affections were with Eric.

Not that the Viking had won them in particular but they came with me by default. In addition, there had been times that Eric was a delight: attentive, sweet, overwhelming, seductive, strong... as in his usual version. I sighed and took the bread out from the oven.

I played blind man's buff with the kids after dinner, I ate just a little bit and went to bed that night in Eric's bed, so that we could sleep all four together. Leif was afraid of Ivar taking me away, that I married him, and I had my own family and stop loving them. He regretted having told his grandmother to ask his father to stay away from me. Fantasized with the idea that Eric and I were together. That way he could be calm about his father and me. My eyes filled with tears and let it go when I heard that he thought that it would be like having Mom back home. Leif was the oldest and who missed her most. I stroked his blond locks until he fell asleep.

I woke up in the morning and started to do my chores. It had snowed overnight seriously and it was a white layer about three inches that covered everything. Our cottage was adorable, I thought having a camera would be handy. Shortly before the sun was at the top quite a stir was organized. I was indoors, warm, with the children. I was sewing and ruminating shenanigans to provide me some onions or carrots, we hardly had, and I was thinking how I could get back to the relatively normal with Eric. We went outside to see what happened, but I didn't let children peer into the snow. Eric was back on his black horse, covered with furs, but bareheaded. He stood a few feet away from home, he looked at me down from the high horse and dismounted. I saw what he carried to the rump and so did the kids, who let out a cry of joy. Eric carried the dead boar over his shoulders, walked up to me and threw it to my feet.

"There's your pig, woman" I know I stared at him as if he had grow four heads of the neck. I regained consciousness when I heard a chuckle. Helga was bending with laughing. Halvar thought that if his son had killed a boar for me, this was more serious than it looked. All other thoughts ran on that line. Some grumbled because they thought they'd just lose their bet. No woman could resist a hunter, warrior, sailor and farmer as Eric. He had proved in front of all the town people going hunting and coming back with a large piece before twenty-four hours, that he could take care of me and all that I bring him. I guess that's the way cave women felt, by selecting the best human specimen for their condition endurance, strength, and survival chances "Don't you have anything to do in your homes?" he shouted to his audience. I bit a smile, walked over to the dead and tried to drag the wild sow indoors grabbing its legs. But it weighed a lot.

"Eric, I can't" I said in the sweetest voice I could get out of my throat. He was appeased in a way that his mother choke on when she tried not to laugh.

"Gods of Asgard" Halvar murmured. Eric carried the bug inside the house and we followed him happier than a lark. He left it on the table and told me we had to clean it right away. I covered my nose and told him that when he washed out and take the clothes out of the house. He had carried on the shoulders that beast and he stank.

* * *

><p>Thanks to all my reviewers<p>

**Perfecta999**

_Dear Perfecta999: Thanks for all your reviews. I just have to say, the story sometimes is heartbreaking. Eric most of the time is a dick but I think it isn't his fault. I hope Sookie teach him more than two things. Dalla is, mmm no sweet or beautiful words to describe her. I think Sookie is nice because he had a sneak a peak of Eric's feelings from his head, but who knows… his actions are not what we expect or they are?… and I love Audr too… and about Sookie being mama bear for Leif it was wonderful…_

**ashmo2000 **

_Dear ashmo2000: I love your reviews, sometimes I can't say if I agree with you because I would be a spoiler… so I can say sometimes you are right, sometimes you aren't. And all your questions will be solved sooner or later… I love the way Sookie loves Eric's children because they are his…_

**kardamon** chapter 1 . Apr 14

_Dear kardamon: I had posted it before but I had erased it by mistake. Do you like the story?_

**nordiclover** chapter 1 . Apr 14, **hitsrin** chapter 1 . May 4, **Skjoldmen** chapter 1 . Apr 16, lunjul chapter 1 . Apr 15, **lacevas** chapter 1 . Apr 15, **saldred75** chapter 1 . Apr 15, **Lara Kingsley** chapter 1 . Apr 14, **Bruja1775** chapter 1 . Apr 14, **Jeneric** chapter 3 . May 26, **Meekasa** chapter 3 . May 27, **Lilloucfer** chapter 3 . May 26,** Jfozz **chapter 3 . May 26** topdog19** chapter 4 . Jun 1

_Dear hitsrin, nordiclover, Skjoldmen, lunjul, lacevas, saldred75, Lara Kingsley, Bruja1775, Meekasa, Lilloucfer, Jfozz topdog19: thanks for your review, just want to know do you still like the story? And the grammatical errors are because even I am trying my best the story is not mine and translating and trying to keep the writers style and feelings is hard..._

**SnowStarLuna** chapter 5 . Jun 10

_Dear SnowStarLuna: I feel bad for the situation. But I am not the author, I'm only the translator… just can say that there is someone else desiring Sookie… let's see what Eric does? Do you still like the story?_

**Lani **chapter 5 . Jun 11

_Dear Lani I dislike Dalla as much as you do! I can't tell you anything more about your statement… do you still like the story?_

**Epi** chapter 6 . Jun 16

_Dear Epi thanks for your review, keep reviewing and I'll update sooner… and Audr got a puppy on chapter 6_

**sallyreuter13**

_Dear sallyreuter13: I cannot update sooner, the story is wonderful_

**Yve327 **

_Dear Yve327: I like your 3 reviews, I can't answer your review number one because it will be a spoiler… About review number 2: I couldn't agree more… and about review number 3: I won't say a thing… you want spoilers..._

**FAIRY WITH FANGS**_:_

_Dear FAIRY WITH FANGS: I did it too, when I read the story for the first time, I thought Niall was cruel… then when Eric arrives, and at first he flirt with Sookie but Leif talk with Helga and she talk with Eric and everything changed. Then it seems to go well I mean: they had a moment. But Dalla is a bitch. And then back to being sad I would say just wait. And now they almost fixed it._

**Greenvelvet71 **

_Dear Greenvelvet71: thanks for all the cheering up chapter after chapter…_

**Diamondz-Love **

_Dear Diamond-Love: thanks for your reviews. And I reread the whole story as I'm translating…_

**the viking's kittykat **

_Dear the viking's kittykat: thanks for your reviews… but I should say that I prefer a front kiss in the mouth than a spank in the butt_… _but I can live with you spanking my butt._

**suzyq59 **

_Dear suzyq59: thanks for the reviews, but I should say that this is not my talent I am only the translator. Be patient soon Sookie will be happy…_

**tatie87 **

_Dear tatie87: thanks for the cheering up I really need it… and I enjoy Eric Viking/Daddy too…_

**MelodyAnderson **

_Dear MelodyAnderson: thanks for you kind review I will keep translating… and I will keep my promise updating every 10 reviews… _

**adicat **

_Dear adicat: thanks for you reviews I didn't write the story I am just the translator. I can say that you have to be patient…_

**Dania Mikaelson, _Lagertha, _ , NiNa5, _loulougirl, Badwolf086, xsphinxslady, _themswhitlock **

_Dear Dania Mikaelson, Lagertha, , NiNa5, loulougirl, Badwolf086, themswhitlock, xsphinxslady: thanks for you review…_

**Elena Michaels **

_Dear Elena Michaels: thanks for loving the story… I love the children too and I love the way they love Sookie…_

And thanks to all the unnamed guests for they reviews…


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Eric heated a bucket of water, took off all his clothes and looked at me questioningly from his nakedness. I didn't give him truce, so I took his stinking clothes to the street and he cleaned up himself a bit. It didn't matter, because then we all got filthy cleaning the pig. Eric cut some bristles to seize them for brushes and burned the rest of them with a dry branch. He opened the boar carcass and began to clean the meat and separate according to its use. Helga came to help us, and we stayed all day and part of the night arranging meat. We take salted hams and hooves and smoked the bacon outside as we had done with the fish. Helga and I proceeded to make a mixture with different spices and boil all the onions I had in the cooler. Eric got the loin and gave it to me as if it was the best of the gifts. He gave to his mother a piece to get chops.

We were left alone and Eric emptied pig guts and cleaned them because then we would use them to embed a hash of meat we would do with the various parts of the pig that couldn't be salted or smoked.

Eric used a metal instrument was like a meat grinder that chopped the meat and I picked it up in a wooden bucket, where I mixed and stirred it well. I smeared my hands with mincemeat while blood dripped Eric fingers. This way he resembled in a macabre and sordid way to the vampire whom I loved.

He helped me with the heavy bucket of meat we get after chopping it all, we add salt and the boiled onion and spices mix that Helga and I had done. And to mix! I sank hands to stir the ingredients well with the meat. When I pressed, the mincemeat crept through my fingers and it was messing me even more. I started doing dirty deeds and laugh and Eric acquiesced. I buried my hands again and started playing with Eric on a very disgusting but very erotic dance. We were like Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in Ghost when they get turned on while playing with clay, only that we were Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman and of course we were more onto blood, flesh and viscera than clay.

We were kneading the meat a little bit more. Finally, Eric took his hands, took a pinch of meat with his fingers, sniffed and ate. He picked up a pinch and offered it to me. I didn't want anything, but I thought it was a good time to encourage a rapprochement, so let him enter his finger in my mouth, I sealed my lips around his finger and wrapped it with my tongue, pulling the meat with me as I pulled my mouth. My lips brushed his finger, I licked my lips and a second later, Eric covered my mouth with his. His lips were cut by the cold air, his mouth was hot and tasted spices. I had no time to react because I kept thinking it was the first time he kissed me with his warm mouth, and just when I was going to respond to his kiss it enthusiastically, Leif interrupted us. I know Eric calibrated the possibility of wring his neck to his offspring.

"Are you going to take so long? Can I go to sleep now?

"Yes, go to sleep now" Eric snapped. Leif thought about his father bad temple, but still rubbing his eyes turned around and went to his bed. Erik and Audr had been sleeping for a while.

I liked to know how sausages are stuffed. I hummed as he tried to see if smoke was coming out from Eric's ears. The moment was broken and he was fuming. I figured how much days had been without fucking for him and clicked my tongue. He had no right to be so frustrated, I was much worse than he was.

We mortise all meat and I left apart a bit to make hamburgers. We tied with yarn the guts and hung them in an outdoor shed that was a few feet from home, between our cabin and Helga and Halvar's palace. They must be at least three in the morning when we finished doing this. I went home shuffling and put water to be heated to clean myself a little bit me before going to bed with Audr.

Erik woke me when he told, a little louder than normal, Audr not to scream or she'll wake me. I smiled and stretched up. I had the two young Northman by my side in less time than it takes to say "good morning"

"Look, look" Erik pulled me and I got out of bed, I covered a bit and followed him to the table where they had prepared lunch (I deduced by the height of the sun): fresh milk, boiled eggs, and fresh bacon.

"Mmmm" I sat down and Leif and Erik served me like in a hotel "And this?"

"Now you're not going with Ivar, are you?" Leif asked. I stroked her hair and kissed him on the cheek.

"I never thought about leaving him, sweetie" Leif sigh of relief, but looked to where Eric slept thinking he would feel better if his father did something to make sure I stay with them forever.

"I've collected eggs" Audr said "And I haven't broken any."

"Very well" I congratulated her.

"Then I'll take one large gull egg for you, okay, Sookie?" Erik told me.

"Stay away from the cliffs."

"I'll take those that are at low height" He said. Gull eggs were a delicacy and kids liked as much as quail, although sometimes it was a little dangerous to pick them.

"I said no. Why don't you try to catch rabbits or hares for today?" Erik shrugged although Leif was enthusiastic about the idea. He loved to hunt.

I was tired because of being awake late at night, so I started to make the thread. Eric had a flock of a dozen sheep, in early autumn, a young villager named Einarr, made the seasonal migration with all villagers' sheep and took them to greener pastures at south, where snow cover was less or didn't covered it at all. He received a good salary, all the milk he could wish, he was entitled to at least two lambs and in that way farmers didn't need to worry about their livestock. Eric and his family only drank sheep milk in summer and spring and in the latter they produced the cheese they had with this kind of milk. In summer, wool is sheared and kept to seize it for the remaining two seasons, during which the sheep were in less nuisance climates. So I started making wool yarn to knit me a coat that I will cover in fur after.

The fur was my next challenge, I wanted to learn how to manipulate it (although apparently it was much more difficult than using the loom) to make a new children boots.

Eric got up before noon, just as the bread was starting to smell in the oven, greeted me and began to swallow what was left prepared for him: milk and honey, day-old bread (which dipped in milk), a piece a piece of cheese and fresh bacon that I served with bread and fresh from the burning fire.

"Thank you" he said, and patted my hand. It gave me goose bumps.

"You need a shave" I said back to my task.

"Yes, you prick" Audr confirmed.

"With the long beard I don't prick" he told his daughter while he was tickling her, the girl squirmed between giggles. I looked outside and sighed. It was snowing hard.

"And Erik and Leif?"

"They have gone to see if caught a snow rabbit" I stared at him.

"Really, both of you want me to shave?" we nodded. "O.k. then. Put water to be heated."

I prepared all things for shaving Eric in a methodical and professional way, although I was made a pudding at the prospect of what might happen after what happened last night. But with Audr present I couldn't fantasize a lot and had too many illusions. The girl played with half body behind the woolen curtain that I had woven to isolate a part of the house and to wash up without shame. Eric kept his eyes closed most of the time and this time, I cut him a couple of times, but he never flinched nor protested. Occasionally his hand brushed against my leg and I expected him to sit me down on him and kiss me, but that didn't happen. I went to get the mirror in order to let him take a look as he wiped soap leftovers from his face. I offered it to him and he seemed to be satisfied.

"I'm going to get a lot of cold in the face."

"I'll knit something" I said, and for a moment I forgot where and when I was because I stroked his cheek and neck as if I actually was: his wife. When I was about to apart my hand, he caught it there against his left cheek. He turned his face and breathed against my skin. He thought I had the softest hands that had ever touched him and he liked my skin smelled of cooking and cuisine. He stroked my face and brushed a strand of hair, I looked into his eyes and wished with all my strength him to kiss me now, before somebody interrupt us. Eric didn't kiss me like the night before, he put his warm lips to mine and kissed me several times, I also returned the little kisses. I felt his hot, wet tongue against my mouth and let him try mine too. We parted. I gulped and looked into his eyes open. He liked how I tasted: like milk and honey. It made him want to drink me whole. When I heard that thought I couldn't help but smile, because it was very similar to what my vampire would have thought.

We returned to lean toward the other for another kissing session when we hear Leif's voice on the distance. We were about to swear in Aramaic when we realized the urgent tone of panic, of the largest of the Northman.

"Father! Father!"

"What?" Eric grabbed Leif by the shoulders, the child was out of breath from running and crying was suffocating him "Erik has fallen, father... from the cliff."

"NO!" I shouted.

"Is he dead? IS HE DEAD?" Eric shouted.

"He's ... I dunno, I think he is not" Eric flew off so fast that I thought it had regained his vampire speed "He is stuck on the rocks!"


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

When I got to the beach there was a huge uproar. I saw where the child had fallen and from where and fell to my knees. He had killed himself, for sure.

"Send a boat" Leif shouted.

"Don't be stupid, boy" an old man said "It would smash against the rocks."

"But, my brother..." The old man shook his head sorry "And my father..." He put a hand on his shoulder.

"What happened, boy?"

"He wanted to grab seagull eggs... I told him not to do it, it was very windy..." he began to mourn and didn't say anything else. I hadn't the strength to get up and comfort him.

Then I thought about what Leif had said and Leif as the vampire Eric told me some time ago about his human life and realized that I shouldn't be there. He said his three children with Audd had lived but my arrival could change everything. Erik shouldn't have ever known me, I was an intruder. He never should have gone for the eggs, he never did in the past that my vampire remembered, but it was happening. To what extent my presence could change things. If he was dead, it would be my fault.

We haven't seen Eric anywhere in a while. Waves crashed with an almost unnatural strength they seemed to be able to break the stone mountain off anytime, like a sand castle crumbling into the shore. A huge wave rose and threw so much foam that the ocean surface turned white. Then I saw them; both of them. Eric swam to his son who was clinging to a rock: he was alive. Eric was near when a heavy sea, a giant wave tore the child from the rock, pulled him, shook and left him in the black ocean. I screamed and momentarily due to waves and my tears, they both disappeared from my sight. I lowered my defenses and I started to hear people's thoughts. They thought the rocks would shatter them, and if the rocks didn't smash them, they would drown, and if they didn't drown, they would die frozen. No one could be in these waters more than five minutes without languish.

Everybody presumed they were dead and someone thought it had been stupid from Eric try to rescue a corpse.

"There he is" cried the watchman "He has him! He has the guy!" I approached the shore, I would dive to help Eric when Halvar pulled my arm.

"If you jump into the water, there will be another person to rescue" I stood there waiting, watching Eric fight flows, the weight of the wet wool, the frozen water and his son's inert body dragging him to the deep. He staggered out with the child in her arms. He was full of scratches. He fell to his knees and some people rushed to cover them with furs.

"Str... stri... strip off his clothes" Eric stammered due to the cold "He… He's alive" Helga took off the clothes from the little kid while I did the same. I undressed in the middle of the beach without caring who was watching, I bent down and cradled against my chest Erik's cold and nude body. His lips were purple and his skin was blue. I began to mourn as I hugged him. He was frozen and I barely noticed his heart. Not seem to have any serious blow though it was full of scratches.

"We have rub some warmth into him" Halvar covered us with several furs and showing improper strength on a man his age, he carried us both in his arms and we drove us to Eric's home. He walked behind his father, aided by Helga, Helgi and his wife, Jora. We got home, the climb from the beach to the village seemed that it lasted forever. Halvar put me and the child next to the fire, and began stoking it.

"Stay with me, do not go, Erik... honey" I heard Audr began to mourn. She didn't understand anything. Helga and Jora also stripped in a few minutes.

"Come on, give him to me" Helga said "We go to bed and lay him between both of us. Warm up a little near the fire" I shook my head squeezing the child against me "Sookie between us he will be hotter, until you warm up and recover your temperature" She tore the child away from me and I saw both of them get into bed, they covered themselves with furs and they tangled around the child so that he was no more than the forehead and eyes uncovered. His skin was not blue any longer, but still had a dull color that froze my heart. I covered myself with the fur and turned to get warm near the fire. Leif had taken Audr behind the curtain and the two talked quietly about what had happened. Eric was standing in front of the flame, naked under a fur that covered him from neck to knees, but that left to the air: head, legs, feet and arms. I saw that he had shrunken hands, stiff with cold. His skin so pale he seemed like my vampire for real in the light of day. Trembled and looked far and forth to the fire, as if he wanted to throw into it and burn rather than continue to bear the cold, and the child in bed. I walked over and took his hands. Also it seemed that my Eric, in the cold of the flesh, with no trace of the warm that made him human. I held his hands and approached them to my face, blew hot air from my lungs and Eric shook again.

"He is warming up" Jora said. I smiled and Eric tried too, but being shivering didn't let him. He had his lips purple. I stroked his hair, frozen with a frost that melted slowly by the fireplace; I released his hands and leaning on his shoulder, forced him to sit.

"Give me your hands" looked like two bear claws. His fingers curled inward and blue palms. I approached him, I opened my legs and put his hands between my thighs. I closed my legs and pinch them in my hottest area.

"It burns" he told me.

"You're freezing" He began leaning to rest his head on my chest. I hugged him and stroked and began to cry his against his forehead "Whew ... thank goodness..." Eric began to regain mobility in his hands after a few minutes, but was still shivering. His skin was cold, therefore, it was like being with the Vampire I was in love. He stroked my inner thigh with his thumb, he was warmer now.

"If it is always to be like this, I will have almost drowning and freezing to death everyday" he said to me. I smiled against his neck and kissed him. It would have been exciting if I hadn't been so worried about Erik. I reposition his hands on my belly and link my legs around his waist, sitting on his lap and hugging him to get warm. We were going to be very cold and be very concerned, because despite the situation, we didn't get turned on. Eric was starting to react when we heard a moan coming from the top bunk.

"Sookie" Helga called me "Erik wants to be with you" I abandoned Eric as Helga finished the last word, almost no cover, I climbed the ladder to the top bunk, I got the furs and hugged the boy, who between consciousness and unconsciousness, hugged me.

"And my bag?" he asked.

"I do not know, my love. We remove your clothes on the beach.

"But..."

"Chist" I whispered "Jora, can you please tell Leif to pick up Erik's clothes and bag.

"Tell him to be careful" the boy said.

"Tell him to be careful" Jora left, leaving Helga and me lying next to the little one.

"I'm cold, Sookie" I hugged him stronger.

"Better?" He nodded. Leif came back with the bag, Jora and Helgi were gone and we were just family. Leif opened the bag, Erick reached in and pulled it out the contents of a crushed egg. However, he took out a whole one, one that was saved.

"It's for you" Erik said.

"We'll boil it and we'll eat it very warm, you and me, okay?" We were like that a long time and I stroking his hair and him muttering things to me. Helga hugged her grandchild from the other side, she did it until she said he was going to prepare food. She wore a woolen dress, and went down and I heard her bustle in the kitchen preparing hot soup, we all drank.

"Eric, come with us" I called him.

"Go" Helga told him "The child is no longer in danger of falling asleep and not wake up and he would like to be with you" He climbed the stairs, undressed and got into bed, the back of his child very close to his chest. He wrapped his left arm around his child and rested his hand on my hip. We spent the day in bed, ate and slept fitfully, getting up just enough for doing our basic needs. At night, Leif and Audr slept with us, right behind me.

I woke up when a hot and rough lips kissed my forehead and lips fleetingly, I opened my eyes and found Eric, now kissing his daughter Audr. I touched him on the arm and pulled him to me.

"Sleep" he whispered, his breath shook my bangs and it tickled my forehead "It is still dark" He brushed the hair from my forehead and I muttered something unintelligible. I wanted to know if was Erik OK, if he was okay, and where and why he was going, leaving the warmth of the bed.

I heard him put some woods in the fire and leaving home. I tried to go back to sleep, as he had suggested, but I couldn't. I brushed the hair from Erik's face and smiled. He was full of scratches and bruises and couldn't move a leg, but we were lucky. I got up, I wore a wool dress and I looked out from the door. Eric wasn't washing himself in his morning grooming ritual. I saw his footprints in the snow, deep, safe, long stride. I covered myself with a fur and followed them. He was on the beach right by the point at which he had pulled Erik out from the water. I walked over to him and hugged him from behind. Eric covered my hands in his and so we stayed until dawn. He was thinking about his dead wife, his children and me.

"What was she like?"

"Hmmm?"

"Audd. What was she like?"

"She was beautiful. Blonde, tall, though not as much as I do. Neither one nor the other. Audr has drawn her nose and the shape of her eyes. She was hardworking and a good cook. My brother Leif was very in love with her."

"And you?"

"I loved her and always respected her" I didn't ask more and I chose to get into his mind to find the truth. Leif had loved Audd, but she hadn't loved him back with the same intensity, especially because she wanted kids and the two she had with Leif died. That marked her. Then Leif died, Eric married her and she loved him as she hadn't love Leif. He had admired his older brother forever, as they usually do all brothers, so he was for Audd the best husband he could be out of love for his brother. And due to affection for him, he loved her. I bit my lip and rubbed his nose with the cold tip against her back. Eric turned around, held me by the arms for a second and thought he could get to love me as he didn't love his wife. I trembled for the heartfelt emotion I saw in his mind, much as if I had felt it through our blood bond, useless now. Eric took it the wrong way, and guided me to home, thinking I was cold.

Erik woke up with a little fever, nothing to worry about and a sore throat. I healed the wounds: a lot of cuts from the sharp rocks, some deeper than others, but none seriously and his father massaged his right leg, which wasn't broken but remained motionless. I guess he must have some or more strains. Erik and I ate the seagull egg for breakfast and it was so hot that I burned my tongue. I killed a rabbit and made soup for the day.

Leif and Audr played with their brother when he wasn't surrounded by fans and admirers urging him to repeat them over and over again how he survived the sea, cold, and waves. Eric was also very popular among the friends of his son, but especially among mothers. Although I was as happy as Larry, happy because for Eric now only existed three women: Helga, I and Audr.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Translator's note: **This week I got my 105 follower so thanks to all those who are following, and I decided that I will try to post 5 chapters in 5 days so keep following and reviewing:_

AerynFarie, AndromedaAtomica, AnnaRibas, Astanley1991, Aura1324, BREGLEEK1993, BVermij, Badwolf086, Beertjes, Booklovingfreak7, Bp1460, Bruja1775, Captain Kirk's Wife, Dania Mikaelson, Diamant Rose, Diamondz-Love, Elena Michaels, Embernator, ErinCullen, EverlastingBeauty, FrenzyforEric, GailJustGail, Hope Mikaelson-Marshall, IdeaGirl123, Jazaray, Jeneric, Kane the girl, Katrinatyan, KimmyPino, Kittyinaz, Lealoo, Lemmmonade, LittleDoll07, LizLizzy, Maariiie, Mademoiselle R.F, Meekasa, MelodyAnderson, MmachadoCosta, MoonstoneQuaffle7942, MrsASkars, Navidasti, NiNa5, Perfecta999, RKandee13, ReannaCullen, Shea2004, Sookie-Eric, Sophie Katharina, SortaKindaNotReally, Spikes-luv07, SweetSnow01, TABM, TBfanenbc, . , TheDivineMsEm, TiaMalfoy1D, Trina Tiffany, Tyoro Dwin'tlithar, Whilemina Harker, Ynaffit9885, adicat, aineee, atleenelli, brinkleybethany, camdylan, cameron2009, capmom, creed4482, ericplenty, erin1705, ff13, hettyblue, hitsrin, icanseethemtoo, , jules3677, juliegh, kanakoyuki, kkfoster, lacevas, ladyluck1155, lildbabyangel510, loulougirl, lunjul, m165, mandymichelle87, marianaacolombo, mesmerizing, minnievigneau90, nordiclover, pelegoddess, renee edghill, saldred75, sasukechic, scrapping4you, stubborn harpy, suzyq59, tatie87, themswhitlock, the viking's kittykat, tyka77, vmhsnancy, xsphinxslady

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><p><strong>Chapter 15<strong>

The next four days after Erik's accident were pretty quiet. Eric got up every day and cleaned the snow that obstructed the entrance of the house. He left one morning with his parents' mule and returned at evening with a large firewood truck, because according to him it will be a harsh winter for sure. The truth is that I was starting to scare me because if this was normal in autumn, I didn't want to think what would happen in winter.

Eric brought his son down from the top bed to the bottom ones, when he had recovered from cough and the sore throat. He was full of bruises, but otherwise he was great, even though he was a little bored, because children didn't leave their houses these days and he hadn't company. His only diversion were Leif and Audr: his sister games weren't his style, and Leif preferred to practice sword fighting with Eric. I tried to learn how to play that weird chess game they played, but it is quite difficult and Erik was always wining me, so he ended up bored. The situation with three children at home wasn't the most conducive to Eric and me in regard to advance in our intimacy. Eric didn't want to overwhelm his children or me. It was pretty funny, because I never had the opportunity to flirt with a guy when I was in high school... flirting in that innocent and absurd way in which you lavish all kinds of gestures and looks that nobody but you both understand, or that's what you believe. So at my age I found myself often laughing like a fool, hitting him in the arm, pushing him when he said something silly, touching his leg, shoulder or arms when I get a chance, throwing glances and talking with flirty voice. In fact the both of us didn't stop thinking about when would be the time that we were alone and we could copulate as rabbits, but the important thing is attitude.

We hadn't kissed again, but Eric had included me in his kissing morning ritual. I had no heart to arrest him and pull him on me when he did, not with the children sleeping two feet from me; but if nothing happen soon, something big, I'd get in his bed and it to be what Odin wanted.

Erik convinced us to let him out the first day it hadn't snowed and it was clear. The wind was so cold that was like it cut the skin, but the boy needed to go outside. Leif was feeding the goats and the horse, and I sent Audr gather eggs that the hens had laid last night while I was drawing water from the well. Eric came out from nowhere with the rooster dangling from one hand.

"Here" he threw it to my feet. Audr came with a scratch on her face and whimpering that: she has broken three eggs. I bent down and wiped her face with a peak from apron which I had moistened with saliva. Apparently the cock had gone for her eye, Eric had seen it, picked it up and wrung its neck. You would have to see how bad these bugs could be. "This isn't going to attack the girl anymore."

"I'll do a good warm broth with it" I smiled and stroked his thigh "I'll grill the crest with a little butter, you'll see how tasty it is" I told Audr "Are these all the eggs?" the girl nodded "Go put them in the crisper basket" She ran out, I picked up the cock and pulled Eric to get up, I fell a little against his chest and he stroked my face.

"If father see you're going to be grounded" We heard Leif screaming. We peered into the area of the barn and saw that Erik had climbed a tree trying to catch a bird's nest.

"ERIK!" his father shouted him. I bit a smile and hid my face in his arm "I'll give you such a beating that the rocks on the beach are going to feel soft."

In Freira's house I changed a small hake and three flounders for a couple of loaves and then I was chatting with Bera and Ivar for a while. When I arrived home, Eric was a little angry.

"I've been talking to Bera and Ivar."

"I've seen."

"Did you know that their piglets are dying because of the pig stallion?" Eric bit his tongue to not tell me that he cared a damn "We're out of onions ... and carrots."

"Ah"

"I told them your pig stallion could mate their sows" Eric stopped what he was doing and gave me his full attention "Ten pounds of onions and carrots for each time the stallion mate and every three pregnant sows a piglet from the litter. And her stud will mate our sows to prevent us from happening the same thing is happening them."

"Nothing that lives in that house will mate anything living in this" I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

"I'll tell them, you agree. ERIK!" I shouted peering through the door. "Stop what you're doing and come here" the child appeared about twenty seconds later, his eyes bright and rosy cheeks. I don't want to know "Come on, you haven't bathed since two days ago."

"But... but..."

"Go, go, go..." I put the kid in the tub and sprayed him with warm water.

"It is cold."

"That isn't true" I added more hot water and threw it to him.

"It burns" I ignored him and I washed his hair thoroughly while he covered his eyes. I clarified his hair with water, pulling his head back, as he was moving a lot, he splashed me and wet me a lot.

"Take" I gave him the soap "well if you do not wash yourself, I will" He rubbed the soap and show me his ass to mock, I spank him and he acted like he was sore.

"Wash as Sookie told you!" His father shouted and he began to rub vigorously. I rinsed him with hot water he didn't complain and I covered him with a linen towel. He was telling me that Leif and he had fought that morning with wooden swords and he had almost hit Leif in his head, but his brother had cheated and he had stepped on his foot. So after that he had put a snowball in Leif's neck while Leif was throwing the pigs their food and Leif and he had finished fighting over the haystack until he smear Leif's face with goat poop. He was bending of laugh, like what he had done was very funny. He dressed and left his dirty clothes tangled in the floor. He dodged his father tiptoed through his back, and climbed into bed to play with some wooden toys. I walked out wiping my arms and thinking that now I would have to fight with Leif.

Eric and the children practiced with swords before eating. He taught them to dodge the blows of a bigger and heavier opponent and I looked at them happy because I knew that the two would sleep that night as two dormice. Audr sang and taught Luup, your puppy to give paw.

"Come on, Sookie, now you" He handed me one of the swords of his children "Come on."

"But..." Leif and Erik pushed me to leave the embroidery, get up and fight with Eric.

"Take the sword like this" he said "using both hands. You are weak" I tried to raise an eyebrow with pride "so forget the shields. Your best weapon is, you are small and fast. Never try to avoid a sword or an ax with a shield because you won't be able absorb the shock, and you'll break your arms, back, shoulders and the gods know what else. Come on, attack me. Come on!" I lunged at him with my sword raised and he laugh out loud on my face. He stopped the sword with one hand, he made me turn around and pulled me to him, hugging and pinning me. "That's what you should never do" He keep me with my hands immobilized with only one his own "Sookie is lucky it is me who has captured her if another had control... the gods know what would become of her" I started to struggle and I was shocked to notice that Eric was getting excited. I tried to wriggle out, but the more I shake my ass, the more I was rubbing against his pelvis and frankly, I don't know if I did it to get free or to rub against him "And this" he whispered "it's the last thing a beautiful woman should do in the arms of a Viking enemy" I scratched his arm, I raised a leg and managed to give it a little bump in his balls. Eric released me and bent between pain and laughter "Next lesson: women are fierce" I don't know who threw more sparks of the two, by anger and excitement "Beware of them. They are like bears when defending their cubs as wolves when they defend their men and their homes. They smell good and taste better, and made men go nuts."

"Eric!" He laughed.

"Come, attack again."

"Are you ready?" I told him the sword down.

"Well, I will attack then."

"Wait, wait" He lunged at me, I tried to avoid him as if I were the cape and he, the bull, but he turned around and grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes "ERIC!"

"Unless they prove to be a danger, which is not the case of Sookie" he said patting me on the ass "men don't kill women in war. They must survive."

"But you have said that they made us go nuts!" Erik said. The father laughed. Nice. I pinched his ass, and he didn't flinch. I started him with the sword in his glorious derriere, but it was like the one that pokes in the hindquarters of an ox: nothing.

"The mission of women is to miss us, men" he said. And he was so at ease.

"You are an ass..."

"The mission of man, Erik, is going crazy about women" he added.

"Oh, please. In any case, it is you who made us go nuts. Erik, sweetheart, between men and women must be respect, communication, affection..."

"Prffff" Does that had been a raspberry?

"Eric, put me down. Put me down or I'll bite."

"I'm looking forward."

"Then" Erik said and his father let me down "we don't have to do harm to women, but we have to be careful with them because they are like bears and wolves and we need to let them made us go crazy."

"Right."

"Jesus Christ Shepherd of Judea!"

"I do not understand" Erik said.

"Neither do I" Leif added.

"I'm not surprised" I muttered.

"No one does" Eric confessed. Children shrugged, picked up their wooden swords and began to practice. Both of them thinking that when they get older they won't let women turn them crazy. Eric looked at me and rubbed his derriere.

"You hit hard. You have possibilities."

"You don't have any idea" He smiled same way he used to when he show me his fangs. He stared at me until I smiled at him too. It was they who turned us crazy!

I pushed him playfully and he had the courtesy to sway a little. He grabbed me by the waist and laughed. We looked to our lips and began to lean towards each other, when, as usual, something interrupted us. The sound of a horn sounded in the street. Eric turned abruptly.

"Is it announcing the ships?"

"No, that's not for the ships" Eric said. It was the alarm horn.


	16. Chapter 16

I said 5 Chapters in 5 days, so here is second chapter of this marathon of chapters...

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><p><strong>Chapter 16<strong>

The kids and I ate in silence. I forced them to eat the flounder which had got for them even though we had no appetite. I saved some of the small hake for Eric, who an hour earlier had left home to go to his parents' house. The men gathered there talking about God knows what.

Eric appeared at the door a moment later, hectic and hurried.

"Leif, get my horse ready."

"What's happening?" I stood up and started to follow him around the house while he was picking up things. He prepared his bag and put stale bread lefts overs from the previous day and with which I had planned to make some soup the next day, fresh bread, a few herrings, a piece of bacon and one bottle of mead and another empty bottle. He left those things on the table and I saw him get naked. He got dress again with a wool pants set, a robe of the same material and then pulled out from a trunk a chain mail and he placed it over his head and he tied it at his left shoulder. He donned fur boots and started hiding weapons in a lot of corners: a long sword, a saber, two daggers, a knife, an ax, a bow and some arrows "What? Eric, please...!" He took me by the shoulders and looked me in the eyes.

"We are under attack."

"Who? Why? How do you know?"

"Harald's men. We just get a messenger hawk" he breathed deeply "A party of over a hundred men, perhaps two hundred; they come prepared to raze the village, kill my father and all the men of my family" I put my hands in my mouth to cover a gesture of horror and dread.

"Why?"

"Now I cannot explain. I have to go."

"Leonidas is ready, father" Leif said. The horse was waiting untied at doorstep. Eric was kissing us one by one and saying goodbye in his own way.

"Thor be with you" his eldest son said.

He mounted the horse, which pawed excited and galloped. The kids and I saw him walk out the door, and as soon as he disappeared, I ran in his direction.

"Eric, Eric! ERIC!" horses were passing me as I ran trying to get him to hear me and stop. "ERIC!" I shouted. He turned to gallop, he saw me, and he stopped the horse and turned around. I stepped to the side of the road because I was afraid that I crushed down the hooves, I got on a rock and waited until he came to me.

"What's happening?" I took him by the front and forced him to stoop to my level, just a head.

"Be careful" I stood on tiptoe and kissed him. We kissed a while as we hadn't kissed before. Not with that urgency. We hit the mouth, lips, teeth and tongues, in an awkward kiss, frantic, urgent and desperate.

"Eric! She'll give you the rest when you get back" Shouted a horseman. Eric took me by the neck, gave me one last hard kiss that hurt my mouth, he left me as if it hurt and galloped.

When I returned home, Halvar was calling to the palace for a meeting with all men and women who had stayed in the village. I showed up with the kids, Helga sent them to play at the room in which I had awakened when Halvar found me in the woods and let me knock out.

"Be quiet!" Halvar shouted "Harald's, _Steady Feet_, men are coming here. Our warriors have gone galloping to intercept them on the way and prevent the battle takes place in our town."

"Hopefully they get them" A woman said like a prayer.

"They will" An old man shouted.

"That's what we trust" Halvar said "But anyway, we must be cautious. All women, the elderly and children will got on the boats and leave to Black Harbor. They won't return until we gave the signal for safe. Helga and Sigrir know it."

"But..." I yelled in order to the others could hear me "If the men have left to fight the battle outside the town, why do we have to leave?"

"We cannot allow women and children fall, Sookie" Helga told me as I was like a little girl.

"All men over sixteen and under fifty who haven't been called before to go into battle with the other warriors" Halvar continued "will stay here to fight and defend the town, in case our riders fail to finish them. The rest will leave on the boats."

"I can't go" I repeated.

"You'll go with the other women" Halvar yelled at me.

"If I go and Harald's men arrive, burn my house and kill or steal my animals" I explained "my children won't have what to eat when the boats return. I won't save their lives at sea and then starve them to dead. I stay"

Halvar and Helga threw me a look so intense I thought I would get on fire.

"The boats will depart in two hours" Helga said "grab only what we need for three days. Two small animals or one medium per woman, no more. Cover up very well children and elderly people" The people began to leave the palace, organizing the two hours, talking to each other and mentally preparing for departing. Helga came up to me and held me by the elbow "It's crazy" She said "There are no guarantees they don't get here. They are a horde."

"I'll stay with her" Halvar intervened.

"No way" Helga sentenced "You heard Eric. Harald wants to consolidate his position so he can sit on Rothgar's throne one day. He comes here to kill you, Eric, Leif... he won't leave head in this town. You must come with me."

"Go with women and children..." Halvar cursed "with the elderly..." His wife put her hand on his shoulder.

"Halvar, please."

"What's going on?" I asked.

"King Rothgar doesn't have children and he is an old man" Helga explained me "when he dies which will be soon, one of the seven heads from the major clans of the kingdom will take his place. Harald wants to eliminate Halvar, because if he does, he will take out from his way one of his main rivals to the throne and he will annex our territory. It would be difficult after that another leader could dispute anything about power to him."

"And Eric and the kids?" I asked worried.

"I'll take the children with me" She said "If Harald got to beat Eric and my husband" and I'm sure both of us felt a lump in our throat "he'll come to get the children. He'll ensure to leave the clan with no visible leader. Helgi and his children will also fall, they are related to us and he would use them as an example to other families" She paused and looked at me with pity "Don't panic..."

"Here take" Halvar handed me a sword in a sheath "It is an ancient sword, it was used by the Romans. It is smaller and lighter than ours. Take this dagger too. I would have given you my son's, Leif, sword but is taller and heavier than you and it wouldn't have helped at all. I'll go with you and help you put timber in the doors and windows."

"You have to go to port to arrange the boats."

"You can do it" he said. I knew Halvar felt like and old man, he had lost his son, Leif, years ago in battle and now he could lose Eric and all he had. He was worried about his son, his grandchildren, his clan and his wife. He feared that he will see his village and his legacy razed, with his name and his past. He wanted to stay to fight to defend what was his, but all the men had denied him that right. The king is never in the forefront, is not even in rows; remains in the rear or at the camp, where he directs. This is war. Pawns fall, horses fall, the tower can fall, the bishop or the queen, but the king must never fall. He was jealous because I could stay and I would stay to uphold what I considered was mine.

I put all the wood I could in the hearth to give power to the oven, kneaded some breads and put them to bake. I had them made for children to take away in their bags with some herrings, bacon and smoked pancetta, a rabbit that Erik kept in his and several eggs.

Leif and Erik helped me gather planks to fortify the house and then they pulled in the empty barrel that Eric had on the street to inside the house. We made over fifty trips with buckets of water to fill it. We expected the attack at dawn or in the middle of that night. We put all the animals inside the house and when we were driving goats inside, the horn sounded indicating the departure of the ships. I went with Erik, Leif and Audr to dock with Audr scurrying trying to follow our steps and with a crestfallen and thoughtful Leif.

"Let me stay with you" he said.

"No way" I replied "You have to get to safety."

"But I can fight. I beat Olaf, and he's almost like an adult."

"I know, my love. So I want you to go with your sister and Erik. Someone has to protect them. I love you" I told them. I kissed them all goodbye, wondering if I would see them again.

I returned home and got more water buckets. I sprayed the walls with water and rubbed them with all the snow I could to avoid the torches could easily ignite, although Helga had told me that they would bring oil and tar to cause a more aggressive fire. I covered the trapdoor that gets to the food with a wet cloth to prevent the same thing, that an arrow or torch could ignite. I kept the animals on the minimum possible straw, and took to the street anything that could be flammable. I put boards on the windows and prepared to secure the door from the inside with planks. Eric had set a good security system in the past preventing occasions like this.

Night had fallen about four hours ago, so it remained at least another six hours of darkness. I sat on a bench, trembling, sword at my side. I grabbed one of the rabbits and trying to reassure me and stroked it. Trying to compose myself listening to the nothing. Occasionally I heard the men that were left in the village going back and forth, talking or changing guards, but nothing to indicate that a horde of barbarians was heading our stockade. I prayed to listen at once the cheers indicating that our men came back... Eric in the head. I was transposed a few seconds, and in full doze I heard the shouts and cries of alarm.


	17. Chapter 17

3rd Chapter of the Marathon

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><p><strong>Chapter 17<strong>

I pulled the sword out from the sheath and gripped it. It was so dark that nothing could be seen and for a while I just heard voices either side of the fence. A half hour later, I heard the clang of swords clashing. I saw the orange light reflection when the first huts caught fire. I started to hyperventilate when the shadows of my enemies began walking in front of my house, heading to Halvar's house. Our men were trying to retain our enemies outside the wooden fence, but some were sneaking around the area that they had opened right near my house, where it was weakest. We had already reported it months ago. They began to open doors and to search inside the houses. I heard Dalla's animals flee in fear and her house being open, her furniture thrown away and her things broken. One of our own intervened and defended Dalla's hut and killed the assailant. But another came from behind and hit him with the shield in the head knocking him down. He ignored Dalla house and I saw him coming straight towards mine, he pulled the door and I took a step back. He couldn't open it, so he tried to tear it down, I stifled a scream and wield the sword. I knew he was trying to knock down my door with an ax. I saw the edge of the weapon and then, like in a horror movie, his eyes peering through the crack.

"A woman!" He laughed and took another hack. I took off from his sight, I walked by the side, and waited for him to stop banging. I pushed the tip of my sword through the slit as hard as I could and heard a piercing scream "My eye, my eye! Damn bitch" He pounded the door harder. I tried re-injure him through the crack, but he took the sword, and pulled it toward him as we fought for the weapon so I cut my hand with the edge and lost it. I took boiling water with a pot and threw it through the opening. The scream because of the burning was so loud that I was scared, he cursed in his tongue and he hit the door harder. I hurried to move the wooden table to bar the door and try to put it in her feet so he couldn't go through the hole that he was opening blowing with the ax. "I'll make you pay, bitch" The door hinges creaked and gave way under the pressure of pushing from the barbaric enemy.

"Go away or I swear I'll kill you!" I shouted. The blows stopped and I heard the crash of metal and felt a huge relief to see that one of our own, or perhaps the same one that the shield was knocked out unconscious, had come to my rescue. But a minute after someone was shaking the door again. I picked up the hammer and grabbed a pan with boiling water to throw it at his face as he entered.

"Sookie! Sookie!"

"Eric? Eric!" I again heard the clash of shields and steel on the outside and a cold sweat ran down my spine. I ran to the door and started removing obstacles.

"Stay in there!" I tried to follow the fight through the hole in the door. Eric thought in the combat, from where the blows will come; while his enemy gloated knowing he was against Eric, son of Halvar, one of the objectives. If he kill him, Harald would give him a good share of the spoils. But I had cut him in the face and had burned him, he might even lose the eye. He didn't want to kill Eric so he can make him see what he would do with me. I trembled at the images I saw and I turned away from the door. The clash of swords was heard a shield bash, a groan of pain and a gurgling throat being slaughtered.

"Don't come out" Eric told me through the crack. Introduced what he could of his hand and I squeezed it. It went at least twelve minutes until someone was pounding on the door again. I was all the time with a heavy heart. I'm not a coward, but I don't know how to fight wild Vikings who grip a two yards sword. If I had my brother's gun I wouldn't feel so helpless and they have too much to worry about. But I was in their field. I saw Eric coming back and I started to remove the planks. I pulled the door while he pushed, we hugged and kissed.

"Are you okay?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Are you okay?" he held me by my cheeks and kissed me "What the hell are you doing here? Where are my children?"

"They are with your mother. And what about that blood?"

"It's not mine. What happened to your hand?" I explained, the wound and everything else. He cleaned and cared the cut with warm water and then bandaged it with a white sepia colored linen piece. I hugged him and kissed him on the neck, he also kissed to me on the temple, cheek and head. Somebody knocked on the door, which was hanging from one hinge almost ready to fall, and we turn around to see who it was. Helgi throw away the overturned table and entered our home.

"Eric, that's it, we have counted twenty dead enemies in the village."

"Plus the forty-three from the forest for a total of seventy-one. Olaf the lookout warned of more than one hundred and fifty men, possibly two hundred."

"Maybe counting isn't his thing."

"No, it can't be. He is a shepherd, he would know to compute by eye to blow the heads of a flock. And he has spent years doing this. He had never failed."

"What do you think?"

"I don't. They could be waiting to attack."

"Maybe they have fled."

"How many fallen among our ranks?"

"Nine in the village: Einarr the old; Bersi the goatherd; Grim leaden feet..." I closed my eyes and held the tears Bersi was barely eighteen. He continued to give the names of our fallen, nineteen in total. What a slaughter. I buried my face in Eric's neck and cried for the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of those who had died.

"We must rebuild the fallen fence. And we have to reinforce the one near the entrance to the village and the one by the Lake Road. Keep watching over the next two days, nobody drop the weapons or let their guard down."

"Do you think they'll attack?"

"I think they might be waiting for us to be together, waiting for my father. You can miss by ten men, go wrong in by twenty, but not in a hundred. Those are too many swords and many horses. She says the ships have provisions for two days, and Black Harbor, there are more. They can hold on at least for four days there. I doubt Harald's men can withstand so long in the forest, with this cold. Let's put them on trial. If there is no trace of them in four days, he send the signal for ships to return."

"You are the commander."

"Organize the watches. Twenty men in each, with spears and arrows. I want two lookouts on the sea, on top of the cliff from which my child fell into the water."

"I understood."

"Six-hour guard shifts, except you and me. I just rest while you're in charge and vice versa" Helgi nodded and left. I stroked Eric's face again so he focus on me. He looked into my eyes and lips then he took my hands from his face.

"Staying here was crazy."

"I couldn't leave" He sighed and I leaned over and kissed him.

"Lock the door and stay here."

"What are you going to do?"

"First I'll return the animals to the stable, then I'll go with Helgi to organize the defense."

"Do you really think they will attack us?"

"If they do, we'll be ready" He stood up and began to whip goats and sows away. He picked up a chicken by the wings and also took it out. I started to clean the house and put everything in place. A warrior came to help me secure the door at his watch. The men set several fires, every point guard. Ten in total. Eric and Helgi were at the front door, helping to lift a door. They placed a sharp and steep woods so they couldn't come close with horses. Eric lamented that they couldn't place them all around the fence.

I picked up one of Dalla's geese, which had been crushed the hoof of a horse. I plucked, cleaned and chopped and made a broth with it. After the middle of the night I deliver some soup to the men.

"It smells delicious, Sookie" One of the men told me. I served him in a wooden bowl a ladle of broth.

"Almost as good as you" Another one said. And they laughed. I smiled and gave him a ladle too.

"Hey, you gave him more meat!"

"You don't know how to flatter women, Orn. If you need any help with that heavy cauldron, Sook, you only have to ask..."

"Enough" Eric intervened. I went to him and poured two ladles of hot soup, and I was careful to give him the liver and a drumstick. He smiled and took the wooden plate from my hands, stroking them "Thank you."

"I'll keep serving the food."

"I'll do it" Eric said.

"But your food will get cold"

"I don't want you to walk among men at this time of night. Go home, close well and get some sleep"

"I couldn't even if I wanted."

"Try" He stroked a lock of my hair. I approached him and I had to repress not to hug him. Eric thought it was not fair to the other men that he had me there while the others suffered due to the absence of their wives. Eric smelled of war: a metal, blood, sweat, horses and leather. I sighed. The truth is that I couldn't be happier that I made the decision to stay. He was distressed by the children, but I knew they were safe and sound. However, if I had left with them, I'd be scared to death and wondering whether or not he would be fine. At least, though I was also scared to death, I had him on front of me.


	18. Chapter 18

Fourth Day, Fourth Chapter

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><p><strong>Chapter 18<strong>

We weren't attacked during the night. I got up the next day with cold feet and cold nose. I went out covering with the fur that covered the bed and went looking for Eric with a little very hot milk and bread crumbs. The fires were still burning strong and the men slept around. Next to the lift door was Helgi, who led a group of men digging a moat around the fence.

The Vikings ignored me and continued lifting frozen mud at my step. Rulf threw me a shovel of filthy mud to the feet. The second-in-command of Halvar didn't even look at me. I kept looking at Eric among men full of dirt and blood and didn't see it. It was assumed that while Helgi was in charge, he would be resting, but I had woken up alone at home. I turned and looked between the men that were around the campfire. Buried under a pile of furs beside the campfire Eric slept, his hand on the hilt of the sword and the face covered by the head of a gray wolf. I sat beside him and sipped hot milk. I heard the men talking about the bad feeling they have about the signals coming from the forest: birds coming out in flocks and silence among wolves. Apparently they were almost convinced that the rest of Harald men were hiding in the outskirts of the village, waiting for the moment to attack and massacre us. I was looking at Eric, watching him breathing, how he swallow, his mild snoring... made me smile. Suddenly he opened his eyes wide and leaned over me just as arrows began to rain. Eric got up and lifted me by the elbow, and the furs that had been covering him remained nailed on earth with two arrows going through them.

"To the house, go home! Fast!" I ran like smoke and oakum. Just as I was running near our well I heard an arrow whistling. I went inside and closed the door securing it. I heard hammering arrows in the woods to my house and prayed that anyone could set the fire. Eric had told me the night before we had been lucky that Harald's ships hadn't arrived before its port and also Rothgar hadn't worsened in the summer or early fall. As had been the circumstances we could be thankful that Harald had to wait until this time to attack the village, with the snow it was harder to burn villages and herd the horses. About fifteen minutes after the first attack, the infantry attack began. I heard warriors attack, and to fight mine. I locked the door with the table but no enemy came to my house were very busy trying to kill Halvar warriors. I didn't want to look, but I knew that to look or not look it wouldn't change the outcome, but I didn't want to see blood running from my new neighbors.

I heard a horn sounding about an hour after the rain of arrows, and then the enemy began to retreat. I saw mine run after them, some on horseback, but returned a few seconds.

"They are getting lost among the trees, Helgi!" shouted a Viking who had been guarding the place that was close to my house.

"Don't go after them, don't hunt them!" shouted Eric "Retract to the village, finish the injured and reassure the palisade. Come on!" Our Vikings attacked the enemies hadn't yet nestled in the woods. They didn't pursue them beyond a hundred meters from the fence. Then they went and secured the scene as Eric had told them to do. Eric came a minute to home and make sure I was okay and then left. I went to see the animals as soon as Eric let me do it. The town was in good condition: as they had been defeated, they hadn't time to loot anything and being winter, torches and arrows hadn't been able to set the fire and destroy everything, but there was almost less than a dozen really damaged house, with ceiling walls and burned. I was going over my house when a gasp caught my attention: the wounded needed assistance. I saw Eric, Helgi, Wulfric and a group of fifteen men, who weren't working ensuring our defensive weaknesses, start doing a body count and help the wounded.

Eric didn't pay much attention to me and I didn't blame him. Around mid-morning he asked me to make something to eat for him, Helgi and Wulfric (the second man accompanying Halvar the day he found me).

I went for a walk through the town and picked up a dead hen because of an arrow and three chickens. I made a broth with the hen and roasted the chickens (I had to throw one's head because it was crushed).

I was scared to dead when I saw that the men at my table ate with their hands full of mud and blood stains. I ate a little chicken breast and left the rest to them (I consider that they have earned it). For a while I kept silent, listening to what they said.

"…plus the ones we killed in the forest" Wulfric said "they make a total of one hundred and twelve enemies."

"And I think nearly fifty of them escaped."

"Yup" Eric mused between bites "that's close the number Olaf the lookout told us. Although I wonder why Harald hasn't sent all the men of his village. How many are they?"

"I think they are almost three hundred" Helgi said "Almost five hundred warriors if you count the lads that are between fifteen and eighteen and the older who are between fifty and sixty."

"He hasn't sent all the men he had. He only sent a few" Wulfric reasoned.

"Maybe he was afraid of losing everything. I guess that he wouldn't leave his village without a single warrior in order to send them here. And less of all at this time of the year."

"Harald has sinned of impatience" Eric commented "He should have waited until the spring. In spring and summer is when real damage is done."

"Will you call the ships?" I asked "It's safe now, right?"

"I don't know" he said after a pause "Harald isn't as stupid as what he has shown. It gives me a bad feeling" I got the creeps. Helgi was in the line of thought of Eric, while Wulfric thought he should call the ships now that the sea was calm. He wanted to see his wife and young children and he was as afraid of the sea as he was from the enemies. The four boats had left with three men in each ship and the women to the oar. If the sea got violent the women unaccustomed to the sea, wouldn't resist. His daughter in law was pregnant...

"Will you wait until tomorrow, then?" Helgi asked.

"It is a waste of time. There is still day, we still have time to send smoke signals and boats depart from Black Harbor this afternoon and arrive tonight" Wulfric said.

"We shouldn't rush."

"It isn't rush, Harald doesn't have enough men, and we are more. Although if they come, we would defeat them."

"It is absurd to risk" he commented "They are safe there while here..."

"Here they would be safe too."

"Don't be impatient, Wulfric. You'll hug your wife tomorrow" Eric said.

"It's easy for you to have your concubine at home" Eric gave him a killer look and Helgi also stiffened. Wulfric held his gaze and I heard his train of thoughts running through his mind quickly, all of a sudden the train stopped and he regained sanity "Sorry, sorry. Your children... your children and your father."

"Yes, my whole family."

"We're all concerned" Helgi comforted.

"But..." insisted Wulfric "We could bring them back. It's a beautiful and splendid day at the sea, perfect for sailing."

"Yeah, I guess so" Eric said "It don't make sense to delay their return anymore. Although Harald could rejoin all his warriors and attack, has suffered a major defeat and we are still greater in number" Eric got up and I did with him. I went trotting trying to make his long strides.

"You think it's a good idea? I mean," I avoided a horse poop "I also look forward to hug the kids, but I don't want them to be here if there is a shower of arrows as the one of this morning, again."

"I don't think that will happen again."

"But you said Harald's men are far more than those who came, you said..."

"Go home. Do you mind to warm up water for me to clean up?"

"No, of course not" I know when Eric want to end a conversation. It's just as sharp as ever. I turned crestfallen and a little worried. I went back and got two buckets of water and put them in the fire to warm. Wulfric and Helgi were sitting at my table, talking. I cleaned the leftovers and threw them to the pigs and chickens. When I came back from the barn I found Eric and the other two Vikings talking about the strategies to be followed in case something went wrong. They were going to let the boats ready to shelter women and children in the caves of the cliffs if they came by surprise. I took the basin and placed it behind the curtain of wool. I left several buckets, a bucket with fresh water, the soap and the brewage they used as shampoo which was produced from the pitch. It left the beautiful hair, but it smell. Eric came in with all things in his mind.

"Do you want me to take the water in the basin used by the children?" He didn't answer "Eric?"

"Hmm? Ok. Ok." I did what I had offered him and returned to his side. He got rid of the wolf fur he worn over the wool tunic, then followed the tunic and finally began to quarrel with his mail. He was going over in his mind the men he had killed. He wondered how many of them had a family that would be waiting for them to come back. How many have a daughter like Audr who would stay by the fire waiting for her father to return. How many would have a woman who was biting her nails. He thought of the families who mourn to see that their men hadn't returned. I helped him take off his coat of mail and other things. I rested my forehead on his bare back. My vampire has a similar scent, but not at all the same. Eric the Viking smelled of sea salt, the leather of the saddle, sweat, cold, snow, blood and metal chainmail and steel of his sword. I stroked his back with the tip of my nose and kissed him. I stood in front of him and looked into his eyes. I stroked the long strands of blond hair, shoulders, arms and collarbones. I lowered my hands down his chest, feeling his abs, tangling my fingers in the hair coming down from his lower abdomen to the crotch. I reached under his wool trousers and stroked. The soft skin of his penis was getting smoother as it was hardening. His gasps fanned my hair and bangs tickled my forehead. He kept his hands at his sides, fallen down, although he was dying to correspond to my attentions. He wanted to raise my skirt and touch me, but he had his hands dirty with mud and blood and I looked like a nymph. I put my other hand the one wasn't busy down on his chest and clenched muscles. We didn't take our eyes from each other. I dug my nails in his chest when he moaned softly. I kept stroking up and down, enjoying his gasps and groans, enjoying his thoughts. I could stroke him just as he wanted me to it. I licked my lip and Eric cum in my hand. He leaned his forehead against mine and we stayed like that for a while, until somebody knocked on the door.

"Eric!" Eric pulled himself together, I took the hand from his pants and he put something on top to open the door. The boy on the other side seemed to realize the he had interrupted something "We are raising the fence again and Helgi wants to know if..."

"I'm going" He looked at me and smiled "The signals are already in the sky, you will soon have the kids here, woman."


	19. Chapter 19

Sorry I forgot to post yesterday. So here is the fifth and last chapter of the marathon.

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><p><strong>Chapter 19<strong>

I went to see them and watched how from each edge of the cliffs that hugged our town emerged two long columns of white smoke. I was looking forward to go to our little bay down to pick up the kids. They must be very worried. I looked at the town and wished all could go back to normal. The snow covering the ground had melted because of the footsteps and fights, the movement of people and fire. It was now frozen mud mixed with dirty ice and blood. As soon as everything returned to normal, the clean white snow would take its place. I saw Helgi talking to some boys near a bonfire. Eric crossed to the other side. I jogged to catch up to him.

"When do you think the boats will arrive?"

"They may wait until tomorrow to leave. I wouldn't risk the night caught me in the sea, but... the women are the ones who row, they will be anxious to see their men."

"I would also want..." I stopped and turned around. 'They haven't noticed I'm here, I should just stay here until my fellow warriors come'

"You would want..."

"Shh! Eric!"

"What's happening?" I covered my ears to avoid listen to anyone else and followed the train of the thoughts.

"There is someone hiding in Rowena's woodshed" Eric looked at me confused, but my horrified expression was enough to go look in the shed sword in hand "Watch out!" he opened it, and a red-haired man with long hair, beard and numerous braids, jumped on him. Eric lunged a thrust, but the warrior avoided it with his shield and punched him in the jaw it made my Viking stumble and then gave him another blow, this time with the shield in the stomach that made Eric fell down in his knees. He was going to finish Eric, when Eric pulled out a knife from his boot to stab him in the foot. At the same time, I hung up from the arm holding the sword of my enemy. I pulled the hair and arm while Eric dagger plunged into the flesh of the foot of the enemy, he dropped the sword and it remained stuck in the ground. He had a small knife, with which he had cleaned the hen in her neck when Eric stopped me.

"Who are you?" the man only laughed. Eric slapped him and asked his name again. He didn't say, and he tried to reach for a new weapon, so Eric had to make him fall and immobilize it. A few seconds later, more of our men came. They tied our enemy, who was called Ulrich _the hateful_, and proceeded to get information. Within twenty minutes I got tired of seeing them beating him, tearing his hair, twisting his muscles, breaking his bones.

"Enough" I intervened.

"Go away from here, Sookie" Eric warned me.

"I think... would you say to me what they are asking?" he spat a lot of blood.

"I will not let you near him" Eric held my arm.

"I don't think he can do anything to me being like this" I unhooked and went to the prisoner "I'll give you water when you tell me."

"I will not say anything, bitch" I went near him and I started asking questions, I was in front of him hiding his mouth with my body, so that others wouldn't see whether or not he was speaking. He told me a lot even he did not know. 'And when the boats come back...' I covered my mouth and gasped in terror.

"They have boats, Eric. They have boats hidden in the path into the bay waiting for our return" Eric was so white that I seemed to be watching my vampire.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Five ships, hidden. They knew that we would send to our Black Harbor and have mounted an ambush at sea, Eric."

"No, no" began to murmur the enemy "I haven't said anything. How did you know?"

"Yes you told me."

"Is it true? ¿¡IS TRUE!?" Eric asked. Ulrich _the hateful_ only laugh in Eric's face of and spit lots of blood and saliva to his neck. Eric punched him in the face and left him knock out. "We have to set the ships."

"We only have two Eric. And one of them needs to be repaired. If we overload or the sea hits us hard, it'll capsize and it won't be way to bail out the water. It will sink.

"I'll take my chances" Helgi stopped him as Eric began to walk.

"No, you won't risk" My Viking frowned, but Helgi didn't let him go "We'll depart, yes, but you won't come."

"What?"

"Although Halvar wanted to stay and fight, he had to leave, because it was safer for him. Your sons were separated and each one traveled in a different ship, to protect them. If these boats are going to be attacked, we won't jeopardize you too. You have to stay here and be safe."

"No way."

"Eric think…"

"In my children I'm thinking."

"You must think in the whole clan" Helgi looked at me, as if hoping that I could convince him. He thought I had a wonderful and dangerous in equal parts power over Eric and he hoped I could influence him to convince him to stay.

"Arm the ships and arm yourselves" concluded my future vampire. He left Helgi there and he started organizing everything. The second-in-command of Halvar approached me and grabbed me by the arm.

"He has to stay here."

"His family is traveling in these boats, how do you expect me to do it?"

"We only have two ships, woman. At best we can get on the boats sixty or seventy men. We're more than three hundred warriors, even we lost the battle in the sea, those who remain on land with can finish with the rest Harald's horde. Eric should lead them."

"But... if women perish in the sea... and the kids..."

"Harald won't kill women, he only want to kill Halvar, Eric and the two boys: Leif and Erik" Only he says. Eric, Leif, Erik and Audr were my world "In the event that the women are taken prisoners the warriors who stay on land, will have to attack Harald's village and rescue them. Understand, we can rescue the women, but if Harald gets to cut off the heads of the men in your family, there won't be women to rescue, because Harald will be the master of all."

"But I..."

"He'll listen to you more than anyone" Helgi turned and headed to where his boss now. I was pondering what she had said. I know I was right, didn't we had taken the same precautions with Halvar, Leif and Erik the young? Good chances are that Eric wouldn't stay even if I ask him, but if I did, and then something happen to the children, he wouldn't forgive himself, I wouldn't forgive myself and maybe Eric would never forgive me. I ran towards them and pulled the fur that was over my Viking.

"We should alert the boats, right?"

"How?"

"Don't you have a smoke signal indicating an alert, a change of plans?" I asked puzzled.

"No, only the one to tell its safe" Helgi answered.

"And that's two columns of white smoke."

"This time, yes."

"And what if we turn them off and then we light two fires that make black smoke... maybe that will alert them. At least it will confuse them enough to ask why we changed signal. Right?"

"She is right" Wulfric said.

"Yes, go, and change the signal" Eric ordered. The falconer was quick to go write and send messages via pigeon, to the lookouts at the hilltop "The other, prepare the boats, load pitch and arrows. Twenty-eight men per boat."

"More men could board in each boat, Eric" Helgi said.

"Twenty-eight men will board in each boat. The best archers. I rather to spare of two men in order to be able to load a tar barrel and all arrows available."

"Eric, think about what I've said" Helgi told him.

"I have already thought about it" he replied.

"Sookie, don't you have anything to say to Eric?" I bit my lip and looked at them with shame and guilt.

"Can I go with you?" I asked. Helgi and Wulfric, and other men laughed. Eric just smiled fondly.

"Do you know how to use a bow?"

"No, but..."

"You would be a great help" he said "But there is a problem. Not everyone tolerates the sea, you know... when we got to the battle you could be so ill with seasickness, that you couldn't even defend yourself."

"Ah"

"There are many great warriors in this town who cannot stand boat trips. It's hard, you know?"

"Do you have anything more to say to Eric, woman?" Helgi said.

"Please Eric, bring them back, the three of them" I said. And I returned his mail. He took it and then kissed me. I followed him through the village to house where he stock up on weapons, again. I put him a clean wool tunic (he protested) and then I put the chain mail (he had to duck for it to go through his head). He stroked my hips while I tied it.

"If you pull here" I told him "the knot will be quickly undone and you can take it off easily."

"I don't think I'll have a chance to take it off."

"If you fall into the water or something, you know" I took his hand and bring it to my lips "Be very careful."

"Don't go anywhere" He bent down and kissed me. He was thinking that anything in the world would make him miss what it was to come.

He had been desiring to make me love for so long. I moaned a little and he pulled away from me to fly out the front door, in the way to the port. The warriors got on the boats. Eric's distributed them by weight, skill with bows and strength at the oars. I would have liked to see him paddling. I stayed in port until the ships disappeared over the horizon.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

I stood there, frosting, shivering with cold and fear that kept me from moving. I was ashore safely, behind the village fence and accompanied by nearly a couple of hundred brave Vikings. But the love of my life and his children, whom I loved as they were my own, were in danger of death. The air rushed stumbling on my lungs. My heart was frozen to think about my situation. What if my presence changed everything? I was Sookie Stackhouse, a native of Bon Temps, Louisiana, and waitress by profession; although lately I had forgotten a bit. As much as I wanted to believe I was the mother of Eric's sons, as much as I thought I was a neighbor in a small Viking town, however much I played to be the lady of the house, I wasn't; I didn't belong to this time, and this place. I don't know how far my presence can alter things. What if Eric's three children who survived don't survive now because of me? What if my Eric dies because I change things and don't ever meet Ocella? What if he doesn't live a thousand years to get to me? I shivered and decided to return home.

I tried to do house chores; mine and those of others. I didn't want to think, but occasionally I began sobbing and felt a very strong chest pressure that prevented the entrance of air, made my knees waver, and caused me cold sweats and tremors. Finally chose to sit. I left home and went to the port in the evening, maybe two hours before the sunset. The sea was twitching and wind raging. The only bad thing that has not happened yet. I imagined the children being attacked in the ship at sea, my Audr and my Eric trying to hold to the deck that was shaking while Leif was trying to protect them from enemy arrows. Then I began thinking of worse scenarios and began to mourn. I should have insisted. I should have gone with Eric.

I got sick of being waiting: I throw out several times, my back and my neck hurt and I had a headache. Shortly after nightfall I began to notice the cold bones and chest tightness grew older. I stood by the fire and went into a state of panic that I thought I was dying. I tried to move, wanted to do things to help, but the cold weather only accentuated the shivering. I've never been so scared.

The night fully darkened when I heard the horn announcing the sighting of ships.

"Ship ahoy!" I heard someone scream "Ship ahoy!" I ran to the port site and I made site among the other warriors with my elbows, who were preparing if those who were coming victorious from the sea were not ours.

"Go home, woman!" Ulf, the blacksmith, shouted me. I stayed where I was standing "Those could be our enemies... run and refuge in your home!"

"If they are our enemies, and I don't care all" I said.

"But if it's Eric and you are here, in the line of danger, he will be very mad with us because of you" Ulf told me, his hand on my shoulder.

"Sookie" Ivar grabbed me by the arm "Please go home."

"No."

"If it's Eric, he will be angry. If he is, I promise to tell him to go and see you right away. But if isn't him..." I pouted and he stroked my chin and lips "if it isn't him and you stay here, you'll make me get killed because I won't be able to see anything else."

I went to the village at a good pace, I got up there breathless and I stood up, frozen, by the road that went down to the beach. If Eric had been defeated, if they had killed my children and my love, what was left for me? Tears spilled down my cheeks and I began imagining myself the next day on the beach, waiting for the sea to reject the bodies of my loved ones to the shore. I saw torches lights from the ships approaching port, but still didn't distinguish anything. A horn sounded and down was a stir of joy contained: if the sea didn't confuse us, that horn was ours. Another fifteen minutes went by and then a great cheer was heard. I went jogging the steep slope a hundred yards that separated the town up, easily defensible and hardly attacked by sea, the port and the beach. The four boats, one of which didn't belonged to our town, docked at the pier. The cheer was transformed into concern one because... there were many wounded and injured. The women had armed two of the boats in which they had gone to Black Harbor and after the alarming black smoke signal on the horizon, they had decided to sail to sea. I saw Eric on deck and my tears turned into tears of joy. Halvar was a board another boat.

"Leif, Leif, Erik!" I called. Eric and Wulfric down a wounded man between the two.

"Jora!" cried Helgi.

"She has been wounded in the arm" Eric said "she will recover."

"What were you thinking, woman?"

"She had killed a fat man" laughed Wulfric "She had removed the arrow from her arm and stabbed him in the face" The three: Eric, Wulfric and the injured woman, laughed. Helgi stroked her forehead and picked her up. When I saw Eric laughing, I knew that nothing could have happened to any of my children. Eric wouldn't laugh if his children had been injured or killed.

"And the children, Eric?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I have come to wait for you."

"You should be safe at home. Is it that no one told you that you had to go and get safe?"

"I came down right now, running, when I saw it was you" I reassured "Where are they?"

"Take the injured to the palace!" Halvar shouted from the deck.

"They are still at the shelter. My mother is with them" He said as he watched his neighbors take down the wounded and began to take care of them "They saw your signal, Sookie. My father thought that something was wrong and only two boats sail to the sea: the fiercest women, young ones who are older and the stronger elders.

"What happened?" Helgi asked while he bandaged his wife arm.

"First we take care and take to the heat of the fireplaces, to the injured ones."

We carry all the people to the palace. Eric used a flint to light a big fire in the fireplace and a smaller one in the hearth. The house warmed quickly by the heat of the flames and the people. Ulf the Blacksmith, Wulfric and old Gunnar were caring for the wounded. Most had minor injuries, but there were a couple of serious injuries: an arrow in the groin of a woman and a sword injured Orn near the liver, the one whom I had served goose soup night the village was attacked. It looked serious but Leiva, Gunnar's old woman Gunnar, who knew a lot about herbs, told us that she had seen some that were much worse. Everything depended on whether the iron of the arrow had hit the bone marrow. I saw her make a poultice with a black soil she took from a bag and with the water she got by squeezing a greenish-colored pond moss. She applied it to the wounds of each and bandaged some wounds while some others she preferred to leave to air. I saw that she drew out an arrow to a young one from his calf, wasn't very serious, but it looked very painful.

"You should go change" I told Eric that was soaked, trying to focus my attention elsewhere.

"I'll go in a minute. Go away, do not see this" I was about to say that the stakes were much worse than the arrows, but I kept quiet.

"I'll light the fire in the house, it must be very cold" I left and he watched me from the palace, controlling me I closed the door and I started to organize thing at my home. Eric arrived shortly afterwards.

"Help me to undress. My arms feel heavy" He said. The gray wolf fur he was wearing over him weighed a lot, it was hard to take it from his shoulders. It seemed as if was glued to his back. It just hit the ground with a "plop" I saw Eric raise his shoulders, rested at last. But there were still many more clothes. He kissed me when I remove the chain mail and I hung onto his neck.

"I've been very afraid" I said.

"Me too" he admitted against my temple. He turned away from me and took out from his clothes a fabric bag in which he had some herbs "Soothes the pains, maybe they need it. We shall go back."

"Change your clothes."

"I'm dry, be calm"

When they had took care of all the people, several men asked Halvar and Eric what had happened. Helgi was very interested in why his concubine ended with an arrow wound in the arm. Although he was very proud of her, it was his right to know why one of his wives had ended in the middle of a sea battle.

Halvar told us they were ready to sail on the boats and came back to town when Sigrir, Helgi's first wife, saw on the horizon the two black columns. Helga and Halvar soon deduced that something must happen in the town so we had decided to change the signal, and if we had done from the clean white meant "can return" to the black dirty it was because we were indicating them that they shouldn't come back. He congratulated me and continued with his story. Apparently, Harald knew about Black Harbor shelter, he didn't know it exact location so he couldn't venture to look near the coast and risk crashing his boats against the rocks or aground on beaches. So he played it safe, to interrupt the way back to the village. He had planned to distract us attacking the village with infantry then kill Halvar and give us a good blow killing some important women and abducting others.

Eric said they battled at sea. He told they were surrounded by Harald's boats and they still managed to sink one of them. The other warriors were prepared to assault ships crewed by women, children and elders, so they were armed with swords and axes, and didn't have as many arrows as ours. Eric said that it was fine as long as they had the arrows and manage to keep the battle at long and medium range, but the problem came when Harald's men boarded the drakkars (eleven of ours had fallen) because Eric and the others had sailed with the least possible weight, and that included the long swords. And that, at the end, according to Wulfric, has been fortunate. Because the long swords would be very hard to handle in decks as crowded as ours. They faced during those minutes Harald's men swords with daggers and knives and to make things worse a blow of sea broke one of the boats and it began flooding. Luckily, at that time the two other ships appeared; in they traveled the very own Halvar and some elderly, skilled warriors and marine veterans, who were strong enough to fight. Some young men like Olaf and other around fifteen and fourteen years who could hustle with an adult were also on boats and with them the stronger and more skilled with knives women. Halvar was very proud of his clan.

"You should have seen the face that they put when they began to be boarded by a handful of kids and women" Eric laughed. They were joking for a little time and then returned to talk about serious things.

"We should go to pick up the women and children" Halvar said at the end.

"We leave tonight" Wulfric said "They must be very worried."

"Being worried won't kill them" Halvar said "It's foolish to risk a ship sailing at night when there is no need. We'll go to pick them up tomorrow."

"Tonight we'll take care of the wounded and celebrate the victory" Wulfric said.

"Celebrate?" asked Rolf "Without women?"

"There is no party without women. They are the party!" said another. I rolled my eyes.

"Understand, Wulfric" Rolf continued "Maybe you fight like a woman, but you're not a woman" and everyone started laughing. Halvar didn't let them celebrate and I don't think they had really wanted, especially because they would have to work the next day and didn't want to go to drunk or hangover rowing. We had several days of continuous fighting: in the forest, in the village, in the sea. All the time going to and fro, bad eating and sleeping poorly. Gunnar and his wife rested in the palace, with the injured, if any of them got worse and they had to intervene. Also, there was wounds that needed to be washed constantly to prevent infection.

We began leaving the palace and going to our homes, Eric was thinking he would have to get up early if he wanted to go on boats and he wanted to, but he wasn't sure they would let him because the reasonable thing was to send rowers with fresh forces. Of course he didn't trust that Harald hadn't prepared a new trick and wouldn't leave his Audr alone in the sea.

"I want to go on the boat" I told him "Can I?"

"Just enough rowers will go, Sookie" he said as he lit the fire "I'll get firewood."

"I'll go. You rest. Do you want me to get a bath ready for you?"

"No, no" He said. He took out the robe covering him and I helped with the rest. I took out everything but his pants, and suddenly, the memory of what had happened the day before struck us both. We were alone and had all the time in the world. But my Eric was human, and he was exhausted. He climbed heavily up the stairs to his bed, each step as heavy as lead. I went out for logs and put a couple of logs in the hearth to make the heat last. I was going to get ready to go to sleep when he called.

"Sookie. Come up" I climbed the steps and stood watching him. He was lying on the bed, one arm behind his head, looking at me "Lie with me, by my side" he clarified. I smiled and I went to bed "Naked."

He was very serious and I also got serious. I just kept looking into his eyes, and he didn't look away as I removed the clip holding my wool tunic. The gown fell to the ground and remained made a wrinkle at my feet. Eric finally decided to change his target.

He glared at me his eyes and licked his lips and I swear I felt my knees were shaking and I turned to jelly. Eric pulled the skin over him. He was also naked.

"Come" He said. And I lay down beside him. He had his arm extended in order to me lay my head on it, so it was easy for me to accommodate. I curled up next to him and Eric flexed the same arm to stroke my hair. This position resembled one that we used to take when my vampire and I had just made love and we wanted to cuddle and stroke each other "This has taken too long. No more. Tomorrow, Sookie, I swear that no man, woman, beast or god will stop me from making love to you" I sighed "I'm going to do it slowly, because you deserve to be enjoyed slowly" his stubble tickled my chin, his lips near mine "And because there is nothing I want more than to make you enjoy it."


	21. Chapter 21

**Translator's Note**: So here is chapter 21. As I promised, before October 1st.

**Author's Note**: IMPORTANT NOTICE: THIS CHAPTER HAS SEXUAL CONTENT.

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><p><strong>Chapter 21<strong>

Now is when I should be sleeping.

It took less than twenty seconds to Eric to fall asleep. I was also exhausted and the situation couldn't be more conducive to encourage sleep. I was lying comfortably alongside Eric, protected by his Herculean arm resting on his chest, under a pile of soft and beautiful fur and under which the heat rising from our bodies were concentrated. And naked. It was somewhat strange to be like this with him. I'm too used and somewhat spoiled because Eric is always willing have sex with me, but this Eric is a man, and eats and rests and gets tired like me. Proof of this is our current situation. He snoring and me anxious and exhausted. But after Eric's promise of what awaited me the next day it wasn't so easy to sleep. I closed my eyes and concentrated on his slow breathing, in the strong, rhythmic beat of his heart, in his grumbling, in the way that my legs fit between his... but it was impossible. It was impossible to fall asleep, even being so tired, when a splendid specimen of homo Viking male tells you what Eric had said. You cannot sleep knowing that the best lover in the world, maybe even in history, takes time thinking of ways to make you enjoy as ever.

When I fell asleep there were no natural, unnatural, supernatural or divine force to wake me. Only Eric movement beside me got me, I opened a sleepy eyelet, which I opened at all when I stopped feeling the weight of his arm and felt him going out of bed. It hadn't yet dawned on the street and you could hear the bustle of the seamen would go to seek and escort women on ships. I mumbled something and he bent down, kissed my eyelids and told me to shut up and go back to sleep. I did a few minutes, but I woke up when I heard our home the front door close again. I figured that Eric was back from wherever he had gone. Moreover, it must have been a while, because the sun had risen over the horizon, though it was very early in the morning.

I heard Eric start preparing things for his morning cleaning ritual. I ginger up myself and I started to get nervous. The night before he had made a serious promise. He had been tempted to make love to me, but he was exhausted and if he would have done it would have been a quickie and Eric felt I deserved more than a quick tumble as those he had with barmaids when leaving drunk from parties and bars. It was a comfort to know that he cared about me more than all that and also that he thought I deserved a clean and dedicated thing. I gnawed anticipation. And anticipating, anticipating, I realized one thing: I've never made love to a man.

Not with ordinary one, at least. Ok Eric is a six feet Viking and that's not exactly common, and it is quite true that I have seen him a lot, but always as a vampire.

My disability has always been my major obstacle when interacting with men and now Eric is a man. And if I started to read things on his mind I didn't like? What if when he saw me he thought I had a big ass, bony knees, or he didn't like the way I move? My hands started to sweat and I tried to calm myself thinking it wasn't exactly a new thing, and especially remembering all the things Eric used to tell me when we were together in bed; before, during and after lovemaking. My hands stopped sweating and I blushed like a fool.

I got up from the bed and for a moment, when I didn't see him downstairs, I thought he'd be in the street. But no, he was behind the curtain that I had installed. The nearly two feet of snow that surrounded our house must had backed out him. I went downstairs and had a look behind the curtain. Eric throw over himself cold water as usual, but this time with a bucket. I heard him snort while he gets his hair raising a little bit, but this time, before soaping, he throw over himself another bucket, a hot water one, which made him shiver and groan of pleasure. I didn't need more, pulled back the curtain and approached him just as he was reaching for the soap.

"I'll do it" I said. He turned and looked me up and down. I take the soap from his hands and he dropped them to the sides. I put a foot inside the basin and then the other. The water was warm and Eric had more hot water ready. I was rubbing the soap until foam came "Turn around" I said. He obeyed, even that he was willing to place his hands on my hips and move forward. I bit my lip and started to rub his back. It couldn't have happened otherwise. I was massaging his shoulders until I was sure they were the cleanest of the Viking era, and then I washed his hair ends; the arms, back and front; his derriere, and I took advantage of I was washing his chest from behind to lend my body to his and my breasts were fused with his back "Turn" I ordered. Eric slowly turned, still with hands at sides. But Mr. Happy was happier than ever.

He moved his hands, hesitating. I know he was dying to touch me. I gave him the soap and he repeated the same process I had done: He rubbed until he got foam and then he run his hands over my shoulders, arms, waist, hips, buttocks, waist again and belly. Then we clarify with hot water.

He brushed the hair from my face, while I stroked his collarbone. I sighed and my breasts brushed the hair on his chest, tickling my nipples.

God blessed me with a generous breasts, but in his infinite wisdom, endowed Eric with large hands that could cover them. First he stroked me with one finger tracing the outline, and then he covered them with his hands, first one and then the other. His rough and calloused hands by work in contrast with my soft skin. I leaned over and kissed him a nipple, and knowing how much he liked it, I used my teeth. Eric pressed my head against his chest in ecstasy. Then he separated and kissed me, our tongues frantically crashing. He took me by the neck and I was blending in to his kiss. I shivered, anticipation and I began to feel the cold that was in the environment. He grabbed me by the waist and lifted me two feet, just enough to get me out of the basin. He also went out with me in the air. He put me on the floor and then took a sheet of linen which he used to dry me carefully. He kissed me again in the mouth, but then he turned to kiss me on the corner, in the jaw, neck and keep going down until his very hot tongue tangled around my nipple. I groaned and caught his head against me. He did not complain and kept kissing, licking, sucking and caressing my breasts. I ran my hands through his back, stroking and squeezing in the right places. Eric lowered his hand to place it between my legs, he stroked a finger, feeling how wet I was and this gesture left me breathless.

We began pushing each other to the stairs that leaded to the bed upstairs. I crashed with my back against the wood, I gave him one last kiss, and I turned and proceeded to climb upstairs. Eric kissed my shoulder first; let me go up a few steps and kissed the inside of my knee, calves and ankles. I got rid of him and I kept going up. I turned over myself once upstairs, not knowing whether I should wait him at the foot of the ladder or lie on the bed to wait him there. I waited and Eric approached me as soon as he put his feet on the platform. He kissed me and I drove him to the bed, pulling him. I sank on the soft fur blanket, still rumpled, and half opened my legs, inviting him to join me. Eric lay on top of me and I felt happy. His weight was still his weight; his presence was still his presence; but it was wonderful to feel the heat emanating from his flesh and invading mine. I moved beneath him trying to rub as much as possible. Eric seemed willing to continue kissing me, but I wasn't satisfied with just that. I reached over and stroked him, just a second. He grunted and I guided him towards me. He grabbed my hand and pulled it away. I made a small noise of protest, but Eric silenced it with his mouth. I kept moving my hip to make him anxious, until he couldn't stand it anymore. He placed his cock in my entrance and I bit back a moan as he slowly penetrated me.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh, come on!" I grab him by the neck and forced him to kiss me. I was so abrupt and impatient that I hurt myself when his mouth hit mine. Eric laughed and moved inside me, and we both groan at once. He kissed me on the mouth as he could and then left me to my frustration. He was kissing me from top to bottom, from the neck, collarbone, breasts, belly... he raised up and knelt, staring at me. He bent down again and kissed my inner thighs. I arched and lift my hips up while trying to catch him with my hands to get him to go where I wanted his mouth to be now. Eric avoided me, laughing. He put a finger inside me and then another, and he stroked my clitoris with his thumb. He bit me and then licked me. He wasn't as skilled with his hands as my vampire, but he had acquired those skills over the centuries, and even that, he was still very good with his tongue. I had been waiting for this for to many weeks to hold back. For a split second, during my orgasm, I was waiting for a bite that never came. But it is that this Eric was a man and not a vampire. I shivered and tried to close my legs clasping the knees because I couldn't stand so much pleasure, but he wouldn't let me. He held my legs and he pulled me to him, he lay down on top of me and penetrated me with a quick movement that took both of our breaths. Eric pulled my hair away abruptly as the pressure inside me was becoming greater. I concentrated on his panting, sweat across her spine, the way his Adam's apple rose and fell in his throat as he swallowed. He licked my neck and chin as his thrusts slowed. I moaned his name and he sat up, on his knees on the bed, still fucking me. After a while enjoying the view, I got tired of having his body too away from mine. I lifted the back of the bed and hugged him, staying tangled with him, belly to belly, chest to chest, face to face, and breath against breath. I heard him thinking he was about to ejaculate and knowing that got me so hot that I was on the verge of orgasm.

"I'm coming" I whispered hoping knowing it excite him as much as me. And it worked, because seconds after Eric threw his head back and came.

We just stayed there hugging each other for some moments, then Eric came out of me (and both let out a sound between a moan and languid sigh) and we laid on the bed.

Eric placed his arm around me and I leaned against his chest. I hummed a while playing with the hair on his belly and his torso. He also played with my blonde locks. We were transfixed for a while, lost in comfort until we fell asleep. I even didn't woke up when I changed position.

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><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: I hope you liked it and you didn't think it was neither too strong nor too light, or too vulgar.

**Translator's Note**: I will update when I get 10 reviews.


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note**: IMPORTANT NOTICE: THIS CHAPTER HAS SEXUAL CONTENT.

**Translator's note:** I know I said every ten reviews but I got 10 reviews the same day I uploaded the chapter. So I'm sorry but I'm translating the fastest I can.

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><p><strong>Chapter 22<strong>

I woke up with my back against Eric's chest, one hand caressing my hips and lips kissing my shoulder. The sun was much higher on the horizon, although I didn't think it was noon yet.

"I'll go and get some milk, you stay right where you are" He said. He got out of bed, grabbed one of the furs that covered it and threw it over his shoulder. I heard him back a while later. I kicked the furs away and received him in the most suggestive posture possible. I played with a lock of my hair, Eric dropped to the ground all he had on him. I reached out and patted the bed, inviting him to join me. Eric started to get excited.

I stroked my neck and breasts and I recreated in the vision of Eric getting exited. I kept teasing him so he didn't take his eyes away from me. Just enjoying the view we was offering each other. I reached down and started to touch myself, I groaned to see Eric's cock give a jolt and then he also masturbated. That was very exciting, until it became frustrating. I wanted him above me, in my arms and between my legs. Eric jumped on me as if he was a telepath too, as if he could read my mind and knew exactly what I wanted. We wallow and dumped the whole bed.

After making love like we were two crazy people, we were cuddle and half sitting, we had breakfast and chatted. I asked him to get me some slate because I wanted to teach the children to read and write, as the winter gave us a bunch of dead time indoors.

He was telling me that he could think of lots of things to do indoors and that would keep us both entertained a lot, when somebody knocked on the door.

"I can't believe it" Eric muttered. We didn't want to have visitors, so we were silent. They called again, louder, so loud, I thought our battered door would not survive "Coming!" He looked at me, and thought he had such a black luck, and kissed me several times "This better be important" I saw him went down the stairs, completely naked.

It must have been noon and it couldn't be that the boats were back. I yawned and stretched. I covered myself when I heard Halvar's voice down on my home. I wore a wool tunic. I combed my hair as well as I could, untangling the knots in my hair with my fingers (and I got some work because Eric had left a mess in my head – He likes to pull my hair too much when we're on the matter) and when I was fairly neat I went downstairs. Halvar gave me a deeper look, he looked at his son, he raised an eyebrow when Eric put his arms akimbo, completely naked, he shook his head.

"Your mother isn't here and I need to eat something" he simply said "Pour me something woman."

"I beg you Pardon?" that was Eric. It seemed incredible that in the absence of his mother, his father came to our home demanding to be fed.

"Is there something to eat? Or is it that you are going to spend all day fornicating?" I looked at him with open mouth.

"Wait I'll make something" I said trying to avoid staying in that room.

"Get dress" he ordered his son "and open the windows and door. Here no one can breathe."

"Okay, I'm going out" I said, and went flying toward the barn. I prepared some boiled eggs, I took a bread that had four days and we ate with some kippers and beans with green onions and the eggs. Halvar and Eric reviewed the details of the battle while we ate. I learned that the second of the ships had left the village, whose poor condition had mentioned Wulfric and Helgi before departure, had sunk while enemies addressed and ours had to use a desperate maneuver that turned out fine: at a disadvantage, they boarded an enemy ship (it was do or die killing drowned or frozen in the icy waters of the sea). Eric said they were about to lose, that the rivals were three against one when the other boats appeared on the horizon. That gave wings to both sides: Harald's men, because they believed that they already had Halvar's family at their fingertips, and ours, to the belief that children and women were on the boats, pushed to fight more fiercely. But when the ships approached, women, young and old warriors began distributing firewood, until the enemy fled in a boat overloaded with injured men. We didn't chase them. Eric ate enough and with a subtlety that he won't have in the future, made his father understand it was time to leave.

We said goodbye to Halvar from our rickety and battered door. As we close, we jumped on top of each other.

"I was beginning to think he was never going to leave" He smiled at me and took me to the table in a twinkling. He pull my dress up and click his tongue when he saw that I was wearing something under: wool pants. He stripped me of them and threw them somewhere around while I urged him to take off his robe. He turned his attention to the skirt of my dress while I untied the lace of his pants. We did it as if we had no time.

After a while (longer than shorter) Eric was kissing my neck while I rubbed his back like the back of an animal you're trying to calm with caresses. My heart was racing by exercise. I trembled and I noticed that something made his skin crawl. He pulled away from my body and brushed some hairs from my face. He didn't want to go an inch away from me and was surprised at his own desire, he only thought on catch his breath to take me to bed again. Unfortunately, the door was half-hook and broken and it had to be fix.

"I have to fix the door."

"I know" I said, but he didn't come out from between my legs and I didn't do anything to send him away. We were going to start a cuddle session when the icy wind whipped our rickety door and made both click our tongues. Eric settled his clothes back, I did the same and each one of us proceeded to one thing. He take a look to the door and went out from home to Ulf's to see if I could get some new hinges.

One could realize how well Eric and I had spent the last few hours at the time of making the bed and sort things out. There were clothes and weapons lying around everywhere and skins were made a knot on the floor. I let the clothes and the bed take some air and started ordering weapons and folding clothes.

Eric went straight to the fire, rubbing his hands.

"Is it so cold out there?" I asked worried. At the end of the day my children returned in the deck of a ship, with the cold, the wind and the nearly frozen seawater that had no mercy.

"Will you let me put my hands between your legs?"

"No, you would get used to it" he laughed. He went out and returned with wooden boards, a hammer and lots of nails. I started scrubbing the floor on my knees using hot water, soap and a stiff brush, while Eric fought with the door frame.

I cleaned the floor thoroughly, considering that during the attack I had brought the animals inside the house to refuge them and they didn't understand that in here they couldn't do poop. Eric lifted the door and I saw he had left it solid.

"Help me with this, Sookie" I got up from the floor and stand by his side "Hold the door there" I held the wood against the frame, but was too heavy and it almost comes over me "Hold it here, it doesn't have to move or I will place it wrong and it won't close" I did what he told me. Eric put the hinges on the frame and started hammering. He nailed two nails and went to the second hinge. He took advantage of me I could not move to grab my breast. I turned my neck and he kissed me. Assured the second pin and told me I could and go back to what I was doing. I touched his ass before pulling away to continue cleaning and arranging the beds of children.

We dined soon. We ate a couple of grilled onions that burned and some hot bread and cheese. I grabbed a bucket of water from the well while Eric came a bunch of wood that was settling into the home. I heated the water and the both of us wash ourselves like cats. Eric was rubbing me and I almost fall asleep standing. Tired as ever, I climbed the stairs and lay down on the side of the bed, Eric turned off the oil lamp and lay down beside me. I slept like a groundhog.

I woke up very late, but before Eric. Sun streaming through the window, I figured it was midmorning. I stretched and my movement alerted my partner. I sat on the bed and I started looking for something to wear to get up. Eric sensed it, opened a blue eyelet, and effortlessly knocked me back on the bed beside him holding me.

"What time do you think the children will arrive?"

"Surely they'll arrive this evening, why?"

"I want to make something special. I'll make some _biscuits_."

"What?"

"Some candies"

"But you don't have to do it now, right?" He stroked my breast. Not that I did not feel like, rare is the time I don't want to be with Eric, but I had a voracious hunger. And I wanted everything to be perfect when Leif, Erik and Audr arrive.

"And my dress? I'm hungry, Eric."

"Me too" he said, and touched down between the legs, in my private parts. I patted his hand and turned around looking for my dress.

I remembered striping myself the night before "Looking for this?" Eric show me the woolen robe, which hung from his right arm, as he rested his head comfortably on the left. I tried to take it off but he pulled it away easily.

"Give it to me."

"If you want to make those candies, you'll have to do it naked."

"I won't cook naked for you."

"You can cook naked for my kids or for yourself if you're hungry, I'll just watch" I clicked my tongue when he laughed and tried to take the dress from him, failing again. I pinched him a nipple but that only made him laugh harder.

We wallow in the bed, and one thing led to another, I ended up showing him the good rider I am.

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><p><strong>Author's note<strong>: After all that waiting and suffering, I felt that they deserved a few chapters of complete peace.

**Translator's note**: I'll update when I get 15 reviews this time.


	23. Chapter 23

**Translator's note: ** O.K. as promised, here it is chapter 23. As soon as I get 200 reviews I will post another five chapters' marathon, so keep reviewing.

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><p><strong>Chapter 23<strong>

As you can imagine, I ended making the cookies… naked. Eric took all the dresses to the barn when he went out to get milk, and he did it between laughs, the son of a bitch. We ate breakfast in bed (I'm angry, but not enough to not accept a good bowl of milk with sugar and breadcrumbs, cozy and warm in bed). After breakfast I tried to get a robe back, but it only managed to may my Viking have more fun. Very outraged I went down the stairs, I did my best to cover myself with some furs from the bed. However, as I began to organize all the kitchen utensils I would need to make the cookies I realized I couldn't maneuver well. So to Eric's delight, I dropped the furs and started pounding almonds, naked. I figured at the bottom of my wooden mortar was my lover's stupid face, smiling at me as he didn't take his eyes away from my tits, that waved rhythmically with my movements.

"Beautiful" he commented "just beautiful" And took a long swig from a jug of diluted mead. I threw him a handful of oatmeal to his idiot face and he looked as white as my vampire. He coughed and there was my turn to laugh "Is it funny?"

"A lot"

"Luckily I don't care. I love the way they move when you laugh" I threw another handful that fell into his hair, I protested and calm me down pulling me from the bench to the bearskin rug that was beneath, laughing. His mouth had the sweet taste of honey.

Eric helped me prepare the flour I would need for the cookies. I asked why he didn't use an animal-drawn mill for grinding grain and he said that in this way it was easier to maintain and it could be used as a top seed.

I sent him to get the eggs, sugar and butter to the cooler room and he said he would have to go to Sven's farm, a dairy farm, to get more butter. In the village there were some farms that had cows and bulls, but cattle needed grazing, so the dairy farm was a bit away from the village. Eric often changed grains or wool to get butter and sometimes, cheese.

I did the cookies mix and Eric ate a lot of uncooked dough (despite my warnings that it might make him sick). I prepared a clay tray, I rubbed the butter and started to form the cookies for my kids. For Audr I made a flower-shaped and in the center I marked a large A; for Leif and Erik I made two sword-shaped cookies and marked the initials of their names in each one. I prepared a big heart for Eric and I marked an E and finally, I kneaded a normal, rounded shape and marked a S. I had some extra dough, so I made another batch of cookies with more or less defined shapes. I asked Eric if he could put firewood in the hearth because I needed a strong fire for the oven and put the cookies inside.

"Mmmm, it smells almost as good as you" Eric said after a while, when the cookies started to perfume the house. I looked at him, smiled like a fool, and with his piercing gaze and wicked thoughts, I rose colors.

"What do you want to eat today? Peas with ham? Beans with pork? Braised rabbit?"

"I don't care. Everything sounds great. What is the fast thing you can prepare, the one that takes less time, I want you to be with me in my bed" I smiled and decided to peel a few peas and use the remaining butter. Meanwhile, Eric was cleaning the front yard, windows and the roof of heavy snow. He came in when the meal was almost done and the cookies were cooling by a window. He looked like a drunkard: white skin and cheeks and the tip of the nose flushed from the cold. I served the meal while he warmed himself at the fire.

Eric gave me a piece of loaf and I watched him tore a piece of bread and then put into his mouth a spoonful of peas. I giggled and he looked at me raising an eyebrow and half-open mouth, trying not to burn his tongue.

"Whaft arfs you lofsking?"

"What?"

"What you looking at?" I laughed and he ate another spoonful of peas.

"I like to watch you while you're eating"

"Later I'll eat something I like much more" He watched me with a leer that I thought I was talking to the vampire. "And I'm sure that you are going to enjoy it."

"Eric!" I choked, suffocated and he burst out laughing as I tried to cover my colors.

"By the way, I want you to throw all those horrible dresses that you have."

"What?"

"I don't want you to wear them anymore"

"I can't be naked all day, Eric!" he laughed.

"Although I wouldn't mind, that's not it. In those two trunks there are clothes for you. It's over that of dressing like a slave."

"Oh" I stared at the third trunk.

"Also there, there are some. I got them in the southern lands, but would have cold with them. You can wear them for me, if you want, I bit my lip wondering what kind of fabrics and garments would have inside."

After lunch I took a look at my new clothes. Some were really beautiful: green, red, maroon, and even one of a deep blue. I was trying them and with the exception of the blue, to which I would have to cut a few inches, the others fit like gloves.

"What do you think?" I walked around with the maroon dress. It had embroidered designs in golden and white threads and knit cuffs with another color.

"Not bad. But you look better without clothes" I clicked my tongue and kept adorning myself and trying garments.

Eric was all the time skulking around me while I placed the cookies in a basket, left the children's beds as decorated as Christmas trees and prepared the table with honey and bowls that would be filled later with milk. Eric grab me by the waist, while I was setting the table, he pulled me to him and began canoodling my neck. Vampire or not, was tireless.

"Why do you think they're taking so long?"

"Mmm?"

"The children, Eric" I tried to push him away from me "Why do you think they're taking so long?"

"The women are the ones that are paddling" he said, held my face and kissed me.

"O.K., O.K., but... it's getting late, soon it would be night"

"We can use the darkness and loneliness" I rolled my eyes, but he began to kiss my neck, behind my ear, my collarbone, he began to whisper nonsenses and sigh against my skin and I ended up drifting.

Of course, an hour later, I was very stressed again. Eric couldn't understand that women were able to keep a cool head on him in certain matters when all I could think about was now at rest and re-loading as soon as he could. Did not understand how it was that even with all the anti-stress remedy he gave to me, I continue being so tense. He was so relaxed, and he was the father of creatures. Fortunately, with the centuries has acquired a little common sense.

I heard the horn sound and jumped as if they had put a firecracker in the seat. I looked at Eric and he smiled at me. I had to drag him up the street because Eric said that it was not worth even down to port, because since the ships are spotted until they arriving in port it will be a while. However, I would rather wait at the dock. I jogged all the way to the cliff, and Eric kept me from falling down a couple of times, holding me by the elbow gently.

We arrived at the port, ad it was so cold that my eye stung and my lungs hurt when I breathed.

"There!" The lookout shouted. And indeed, there they were.

"Ahhh! Leif, Leif! Erik!" I shouted "I don't see them, do you see them?

"Sookie! Hello, Sookie!" Erik greeted me from the deck, about forty yards from the harbor.

"Hi, honey! Be careful or you'll fall!" I laughed and waited for them kneeling with open arms. Leif and Erik ran down the catwalk, and almost throw a woman into the water in their race. They hugged me so hard and so suddenly that they almost made me fell down.

"Hey, Sookie, hello" Erik told me.

"Hi, honey. Are you okay?"

"Yes" Both of them answered at once.

"Are you okay?" Leif asked.

"I am."

"I was so worried about you."

"So was I about you, my love" I told him "About both of you" I stroked their face and hair and they returned the gesture.

"Did you missed me, Sookie?" Erik questioned.

"Very much."

"Really? How much?"

"From here to the moon."

"Yeah? Well, I've missed you from here to Black Harbor. "

"The moon is farther away, you silly" Leif said.

"How can it be farther if I can see it from here, you idiot?" Erik answered him.

"Come on, don't fight."

"You know what, Sookie?" I smiled and he continued "We saw whales."

"Yeap!" Leif confirmed.

"Oh.."

"I threw a hook and it licked it... I almost fish it."

"You almost fall into the water, which is different."

"Shut up, you fool."

"If you don't stop fighting I'll get mad" They looked at me and I smiled at them "Where is Audr?"

"She's with Grandma."

"Yes, it has been lightheaded" Erik said.

"Oh, god" Helga came down with the help of another woman, with Audr in her arms. Eric and Halvar received her; the first, removing the child from her arms and allowing the couple meet and greet properly. Audr pulled away from his father's arms and she made me a sign to me to hold her "Are you dizzy?" she nodded "You'll get better" I kissed her "Ok, let's go home, huh?"

"Give her to me" Eric said after hugging the boys.

"No, it's ok, I got her."

"She's too heavy for you, and the slope is hard. Give her to me" I gave him the girl, who snuggled against him. I greeted Helga and with Erik and Leif by the hand, we climbed to the village. Audr made me a sign to hold her in my arms as soon as we set foot on level ground, I grabbed her and held her against my chest.

"I'll do a little bit of honey water, so you recover. And then you can eat the cookies that I have made for you."

"¿¡You have made cookies?!" Erik shouted. He and Leif began running, jostling to get to the cookies first, but Eric gave them a shout and they finally came home like civilized people. I removed all the dirty and wet clothes from Audr while Leif and Erik took off their clothes at lightning speed.

"Smells so good!" Leif said.

"Can I eat the one you made for Audr?" Eric glanced at him "But she's sick..." I ruffle his hair and kissed him.

"There's plenty for everyone. Get warm on the fire. Meanwhile, I'll warm milk with honey." Audr was getting much better as she drank a couple of sips of fresh water, but the smell of cookies and milk do better than any energy drink would have done, because the girl recovered quickly and came to sit the table, on my lap "Soak them in milk."

"Oh, Sookie, how much I've missed you" Leif said.

"I missed you more! I missed you so much, much, much more than him" Erik shouted.

"You both are kinda cheeky" Eric commented "You have missed the food and how much Sookie spoil you."

"I do, have missed you both" I stirred their hair and kissed them both in the forehead. Eric looked at me and raised an eyebrow wondering with his look if I really had missed them so much as I said "It is true" I said and laughed.

"Well I haven't missed you at all."

"Eric!"

"Me neither?" Little Audr asked with sadness.

"To you, yes I have" Eric said with a smile "Sookie sings very badly" he whispered. Eric tickled her in the belly and the girl bended giggling.


	24. Chapter 24

**Translator's note**: we have reached 200 reviews so I will make other marathon... 5 chapters in five days… Day 1

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><p><strong>Chapter 24<strong>

The children told us all they had seen during the journey and what they did in Black Harbor while we were eating cookies.

"What happened to the door?" Leif asked after a while, leaving the snack.

"Oh, well..."

"Have we been attacked?" he asked in a sharp voice, full of anguish.

"Yes? Wow! I always miss everything" Erik said.

"Where were you?" Leif asked.

"I was safe" I lied "Besides, your father came quickly and... you cannot imagine how he fought!" Erik looked at his father and his eyes shining.

"Have you been attacked Sookie?" Leif asked.

"No way!"

"That's not true. And that wound in your hand?"

"I did it while killing a rabbit."

"I don't believe you."

"No more okay, Leif" warned his father "Don't question the elders"

"But why have you changed the door?"

"Because I didn't like the other one."

"That's a lie!" Leif said indignantly.

"Leif..." Eric's second warning.

"I also didn't like it" Audr said "Do you remember the big thorn that I stuck on my finger Sookie?"

"Yes, sweetie" I smiled. "It was a horrible door. It's better this way."

"You have changed it because you were attacked. You're lying..." Leif lowered his chin and looked at me with narrowed eyes as he threw his accusation. Eric gave such a punch to the table that it tipped up two bowls of milk, mine and Erik's, fortunately, they were almost empty.

"Make it the last time you call Sookie a liar."

"But it's not true! You are..." Eric lifted his hand to his son, ready to slap him, but I reacted quickly. I placed a gentle hand on the back of his and got to stop him. Leif not even closed his eyes.

"No, please."

"Go to sleep" He ordered Leif. The boy got up indignantly and left sulking towards his bed "everyone to bed to sleep."

"But I want to sleep with Sookie!" Erik protested.

"Me too! Me too!" Audr said.

"Let them, please" I pleaded. Eric looked at me and swallowed, "Let Leif sleep with us" the children hurry up the stairs that went to the platform where the bed, where Eric and I slept, was. I went to Leif, who was giving us his back "Don't you come with me?" I asked. He shifted the furs and said nothing.

His mind was a continual trampling of bad thoughts about what could and hadn't happened to me, "If you don't come, I will lie here with you" I told him, and raised a wolf fur to lay down with him.

"Okay, okay..." Leif got up and went upstairs to be with his siblings. All of them fought about being by my side, but at last were Eric and Leif who won, with the excuse that they never laid down with me. Eric placed his hand on my hip and stroked me while I succumb to the magic of Morpheus, calm and warm with my children.

In the middle of the night I noticed Leif moving by my side. He slipped out of bed and left the platform. Eric took the opportunity to pull me, and wrapped his legs and arms around me. I felt like a fish in a trawl.

After a while I started to worry. I thought Leif would have gone downstairs to relieve himself, but I was beginning to think something was wrong, because I heard him down, whipping the fire. Eric tightened his bear hug on me as I tried to wriggle out of it.

"Let me go" I told him. He mumbled something but didn't let me go "Eric, Eric..." I shook him.

"What's happening?" he whispered against my ear, and tickled me.

"I want to go downstairs"

"What for?" He hugged me even more.

"Hey, let me go, you seem like an eel!" I pinched him a testicle and he released me reluctantly. I wear something over while Eric grumbled quietly in bed, watching me. I saw Leif stood still in front of the embers of the fire "Leif, honey, are you okay?" I asked once I was downstairs. The boy looked at me with bright eyes and turned his attention to the fire "Have you had a bad dream?" I asked noticing his tumultuous mind "my life..." I put my hand on his shoulder and he turned away "What would you like to know?"

"What happened? Tell me the truth."

"We were attacked" I sigh "One of Harald's men realized that I was in the house and tried to come in."

"Did he hurt your hand?"

"No, this was my clumsiness. I tried to attack him with the sword through a hole and I ended up cutting myself."

"I could have defended you. I could have defended the house" he said. I knew that Eric was listening to us.

"I know."

"I beat Olaf. I bested him! And he is much bigger than me… and you. I wanted to stay here and fight."

"And I wanted you to be safe."

"And I also wanted you to be safe."

"But I'm older and I have to protect and take care of you."

"You're not my mother!" Leif soon regretted saying it like that.

"I wouldn't love you more if I was"

"I didn't mean that" he apologized. I smiled.

"I know."

"No, really... I..." I knelt in front of him and let the kid nailed his look in his knees.

"Don't think because I'm not..." Leif came at me and hugged me. I returned the hug.

"I don't want anything happen to you" I kissed him on the cheek "soon I will be a man and I won't let anything happen to you."

"Sounds good. But until you grow up and be a man, I'll take care of you. O.K.? Come on, let's go to bed" We went up and Eric was kind enough to pretend to be asleep. He made room for us and hugged us both as we had laid down.

"Starting tomorrow I won't sleep with you" Leif said "I won't sleep with you again. I won't lie down next to a woman like a child anymore. When I go back to sleep with a woman, I'll do it as men lie with women. Do you understand?" I nodded excitedly.

"But tonight you can still sleep beside me, hugging me. Right?"

"Just tonight"

And like that we slept.

A few hours later Eric shifted from my side and stood, and it wasn't even dawn when he came to the bed and shook Leif, urging him to get up. The boy protested and snuggled against me for warmth and protection.

"Come on, Leif" Eric shook his son and I opened my eyes.

"What's happening?"

"Nothing happens, sleep, love. Leif..."

"A little longer..."

"Come on, it's time to get up."

"I'm sleepy...

"You said you wanted to be a man, then come" Eric whispered "You begin today."

"What is it?" I questioned.

"Come, boy, dress warm." Leif, to whom the words his father had alerted, rose from the bed and was doing what Eric told him, sat down to put on some furry boots "We go to the forest."

"¿To the forest?" we both asked.

"Men's stuff. You want to come or not?"

"Yes!"

"Well hurry" I didn't say anything but stroked his arm, which rested on the bed "We will be out all day" he said softly, turning half of his body to look at me while stroking me over the furs.

"All day? But if it's freezing!"

"We'll be covered with warm furs."

"Eric, Could you leave this father and son trip for later, when it's not freezing?" he just smiled.

"This is not just a trip. We're going hunting. Go back sleep is very early."

"Did you get food?"

"Yes."

"What?" I wanted to know. He broadened his smile.

"I took bread, a piece of smoked cod and smoked bacon."

"Just that? I'll wake up and I'll make you something decent."

"No way" he knocked my attempt to get up and kissed me on the forehead "Ye, you stay here. I have to take care of you" he looked at me with such tenderness that I thought my heart would explode.

"Don't be too strict with him."

"I'm ready" Leif said.

"Let's go" He got up and took one last look to us. I heard them closing the house and talk by the door. Then I heard the horse's hooves crunching the snow as they walked away.

Erik and Audr slept until noon and only awakened because of the aroma of freshly baked cake. I found some slate stones, sized like a kid's notebook page and as thick as two fingers on the wood table. Eric had left them to me, as I asked him so I could teach children to read and write.

"Why did they leave without me!?"

"They've gone hunting, Erik, and you are very young" I said for the umpteenth time.

"And to the top I have to learn how to read these strange things" he said. Helga, who had arrived after lunch, and was sitting next to him, hit him on the neck. The kids had vague knowledge of runic writing, and when I explained Helga that I wanted them to learn better, it seemed a great idea. So I'll teach them the Latin alphabet and she'll teach them the runic alphabet. And now I had realized that they would also have to learn math and calculus. A child cannot spend all day playing, chasing frogs and butterflies, they have to study and learn "if they had brought me with them I would be learning a lot more important things."

"You'd be bothering" I answered openly "Your father and your brother haven't gone to play and climb all the trees and rocks, but to work. And your work here, in addition to taking care of animals when Leif is not here, is to help me at home and do what I command you. See, what a pretty _a_ Audr has written" I smiled at the girl, who continued to refine her writing of the letter A "come on, make an effort and I'll give you a large piece of cake."

"It amazes me that Eric has wanted to go hunting" Helga said "Not that he doesn't like..."

"He loves it."

"Yes, he loves it, but it's not time to go into the woods with the kid."

"I think he has done it because what Leif said yesterday"

"It's difficult when they start growing."

"I think it's always difficult."

After they had reviewed the vowels one by one and copied them several times, it was time to learn the numbers. The Vikings, like many other people, used other algorithms. That evening, Helga also learned, along with Audr and Erik, some of the first Arabic numerals to which we are so accustomed.

"Well, I must go now, Halvar would resemble a caged lion" said the chief's wife while wrapping up herself with a thick cape throwing the hood over her head "Remember to tell Eric that within four days, when the injured men had got better and the most urgent damage had been repaired, we'll celebrate the victory at my home."

"Do you think it's a good idea?"

"No, but Halvar does. And it is true that it is always good to offer some food to the village, some women and children eat well at least once during the fall" She lamented.


	25. Chapter 25

Second day Second Chapter

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><p><strong>Chapter 25<strong>

I missed cell phones.

I looked through window expecting to see both of them arrive, because it was about an hour after sunset, it was very dark, and the cold was terrible. Each second that went by one could see icicles forming on the ceiling of our house. I opened the door and hit them with the broom until they broke, I didn't want them to be like daggers hanging from the entrance of my home. I bit my lip and the little saliva that wet it froze in a second. I ran towards the well, I took three buckets of water and covered it with a wooden board which we used for two purposes to prevent children could look out and fell down, and to avoid as far as possible that the water froze. I went home, stirred up the fire and began to heat the water so that when they returned they could have a hot bath if they needed it. When I saw them come in, an hour later, I panicked at their sight.

"¡But you didn't catch a thing!" I scolded them, their hands were empty and completely frozen. Eric wore very short beard and mustache, but with frost. And to Leif his tears had chilled at the corners of the eyes "Poor thing. Of course, you could have waited for these experiments. And to the top you don't bring anything, not even a pigeon."

"We went all the way along the river side" Leif said through shivering by the fire. I rubbed his arms, trying to warm him.

"Perfect, just perfect you could become seriously ill"

"Tomorrow we have to go back" the boy said.

"What? No way."

"We spent the day laying traps and snares" Eric said "Tomorrow we have to go to pick up those that are empty and the animals that have fallen into the traps."

"Well, you're on your own."

"¡Not! I want to go."

"Look at your lips they are blue! I will prepare a hot bath for you, then you ate dinner and go to bed and rest. We'll talk about this, you and me" I told Eric, who winked at me.

"Father taught me how to use the bow" Leif told Erik.

"¡Woow! I want to go."

"¡NO WAY!" I yelled from behind the curtain, as I poured the hot water in the basin where we bathed. I heard the middle Northman son protest and grumble while Leif told him he almost hit a rabbit with an arrow and how he had crossed a poisonous mushroom that was in the trunk of a tree, throwing a knife from at least five yards.

Eric take his bath after Leif, who said he that was so tired that he was nearly not hungry, but when I put them two heaped bowls of chicken and rabbit with warm bread and boiled egg they ate as if they wouldn't eat anything anymore.

"You should go to bed, Leif" Eric ordered "we have to go at early morning again."

"Eric, please..."

"We cannot lose the traps, Sookie, and we need the furs."

"Well, I'll go with you and help you."

"¡No!" Leif protested.

"Don't yell, son" Eric scolded him, "I appreciate your help, but Leif will come with me" I was about to protest when he lifted his hand telling me not to interrupt him "Leif will be the man of his house one day and he'll have a family to take care of, feed, clothe and protect. He has to learn to hunt in winter and how, when and where to place the traps to get good furs."

"And cannot he learn it later? At least when it's not so cold. ¡Look at Blizzard!"

"Precisely" he said.

"Can I go?" Erik asked.

"You're still young, but I will teach you later" he pinched his cheek. He rarely lavished affection on his two sons "Your grandfather taught your Uncle Leif and me" he told Leif "the same places and the same things that you learned today. And someday, you will also learn, Erik. And with half luck than I've had been" he said reaching out and grabbing my hand "you will have a woman at home who worries and cares the half Sookie does about us" Okay, I smiled. Cursed smarmy "What did you do today? Have ye done well?" he asked. Erik started to complain about how much he had grown bored and beautiful Audr showed him how beautiful she made the letter a. I reminded Leif, that he'll also have to learn and although he sought support for his father, he didn't find it there, because Eric was more than agree with me that children learn Latin, as he had learned from his mother.

He also, was very interested in mathematics that I knew and encouraged his children to learn together the strange things that I knew.

After dinner, Erik was playing with his father for a while to hnefatalf (Viking Chess) while Audr encouraged them and I scrubbed with hot water the pots after dinner.

Before going to sleep, I prepared very hot milk for all of us and dip a piece of cake in it.

"To bed everyone" I said.

"Can I sleep with you, Sookie?" Audr asked with the sweetest voice that was able to put. I looked at Eric, who ordered the things I would need the next day, because I wanted to be with him and did not know what to say.

"Can we?" Erik asked.

"Today you will sleep in your bed, that's why you have them" His father answered them.

"Na, but I want to sleep with her" The young Erik said.

"That make two of us" Eric the father said "You have to get used, because Sookie and I want to sleep alone, children" Leif gave a cry of joy, Audr huffed and Erik looked at us with a raised eyebrow. The middle son muttered something about "keep her to yourself" and I held my smile. Leif, however, was delighted. He pushed his brother and took Audr's hand, urging them to go to their beds. I put the two little ones to sleep between protests, with Leif making sure they won't go upstairs to disturb his father and me. He went to bed after giving me a kiss and fell on his bed like a tree that just fell.

Eric and I climbed into our bed, stripped off and we got under the skin. I hugged him and began to caress and kiss me.

"Eric... Eric..."

"What?"

"What do you mean with _what_? What are you doing?"

"I'm making love to you" I repressed a cry of outrage.

"Here?"

"And where else?"

"Now?"

"Do you want me to wake you up in the middle of the night?"

"I do not mean that, we cannot do it with the kids downstairs."

"Do you want to throw them to the street with this snow storm?

"Do not play the fool anymore! They could hear us. ¡Or see us!"

"So what?"

"How "so what?"?"

"It is normal that they hear and see. It would be worse to let them get cold outsideI clicked my tongue and I hit his hand when he tried to reach my crotch with his hand

"Oh, God! It's indecent. It's not right! What are you thinking?"

"I think what I think and that's why I am like I am" he said and took my hand to his penis so I knew everything he was imagining. I slipped from his grasp and he sighed impatiently "What is the problem?"

"Lower your voice. Because of the children... the children..." Eric leaned over me, covered us with the furs and began to romp under them.

I didn't enjoy it and Eric ended up getting angry because I was more concerned to shut him up and drown out my moans that in enjoying it. When I managed to get lost in the pleasure of his thrusts and enjoy, in a second I was aware that my children may be listening and I came so ashamed and blush again so I lost all the libido. Eric turned away when he finished and I felt horrible hearing things I thought. I hugged him and kissed his shoulder, trying to make him see that in no way had stopped liking and that it would never happen.

I woke up at dawn, the same as he.

"Go back to sleep," he said.

"I want that you to go well breakfasted. I'll make a piping hot porridge."

"As you wish" he said. He got up, got dressed and went to prepare the horse. I went out a few seconds later, toward the barn. The wind was cold and worse, very strong, so strong that I had to lean to keep from falling on my ass.

Eric was covering the horse with an old woolen fabric, so that the animal doesn't get cold.

"It will be a terrible day, Eric, do not leave."

"I told you I have to go pick up the traps and the animals."

"But I think that with the ice that is falling they cannot rot!"

"But other animals could destroy them. No discussion. But if you want, Leif can stay."

"No way! You will not leave you alone in this weather. I'll go with you."

"For frak's sake!" he bellowed.

"I won't leave you alone" I stated "And I don't want you to go like this" I approached him and fingered his shoulders, strong as a longshoreman.

"Like this, how?" he asked as I kissed his shoulders.

"Pissed off."

"I'm not angry. Annoyed... maybe" I lifted his robe and put my hands under it, stroking his chest "Here, there are no children."

"No there are not."

"Although the animals will see and hear us."

"I think the goats will be able to bear it" He slammed me into the wooden wall and in minutes we enjoyed everything that we hadn't been the night before.

And I chant as I milked a little milk and Eric finished loading the horse. I went house ready to prepare breakfast for my two men, but before I snatched a few kisses, hickeys, laughs, cuddles and fondling from Eric.

"Hurry up, Leif, that we are late" Eric yelled after eating breakfast. I looked frowning because it seemed wrong to blame his son for his delay. The light of dawn illuminated the horizon.

"Cover yourselves well. Leif, cover your head" I said as his father helped him to ride the horse.

"Get inside the home before you freeze."

"Be very careful."

"Yes!"

"And do not come back too late!" I shouted. They must have been less than twenty meters away and I didn't see them anymore because of the snow storm.


	26. Chapter 26

Third day... third chapter

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><p><strong>Chapter 26<strong>

Freira came that morning to bring Gunnar to our house so Erik and he could play around together. We talked about the weather and then they left. Fiora also came bringing her two children. She was a gorgeous even she was a lot older than me, and she was married to a man of much superior social status to her. I thought that was always well dressed and I'm sure she would have been a great fashion and shoes designer and if she was born in another era.

The kids were running around, practicing with sword and playing with wooden toys for over two hours until I sat down with them and told them that he had an idea for the celebration to be held at the Palace of Halvar in two days.

"You know what I was thinking? Why don't we make a theater play for the celebration?"

"A what?"

"A theater play" I answered "A function: with actors, decorated and a story to tell. We would tell the attack and our victory and you'll perform it."

"Like a game!"

"That's it! Like when you play to be your favorite warrior. Let's see..." The children, who had me in high regard because of Audr's party and all fun and games I prepared for them, they listened attentively and were enthusiastic about my idea.

During the afternoon, while the kids practiced with numbers (writing zero to five), somebody knocked on the door. Helga came in greeting cheerfully. She took off the fur that she was wearing and placed it at a safe distance from the fire, but close to it so the fur keep being warm.

"I don't like this calm"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I think a big blizzard is coming" I sighed and looked out the window "Do not worry. If things get ugly, Eric and children take refuge anywhere. They have coats, they can make fire and they have the horse to keep them warm."

"No doubt that Eric is able to protect him and the child from the cold, but I would rather have them here" she placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled at her.

"You look terrible. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, well, I didn't sleep well tonight."

"Why?"

"It's that..." Helga was the closest thing to a friend I had in that world, but she was also Eric's mother, and I don't know if talking about certain things with the one who is your mother in law is a good idea.

"What? It's something wrong with Eric? Halvar told me what happened while we were in Puerto Black. Are things going the same?"

"I don't know, I guess, what did Halvar say?"

"That Eric and you are lying together" she said with finesse. She was classy. I smiled.

"Yes… that's true" I saw she was concerned about me, as I had my face as white as a ghost.

"So, aren't you happy with that situation? I thought you fancied my son."

"It isn't that!" I screamed and Helga freaked out "Of course I like Eric, I like him very much" It was much more than like. I loved him "And I'm very happy at home."

"And what is the problem?"

"The kids" I replied. Helga raised an eyebrow "Last night Eric wanted… that… he wanted to be with me but…

"Did he forced you?" she asked shrilly.

"Of course not! I also wanted to be with him" I answered "But I wouldn't do it in front of children."

"Where you were you?"

"In our bed."

"What about the children?"

"In theirs."

"I do not see the problem."

"By Odin, Helga! Children may have heard or seen us."

"Is it that you meant to leave them in the street?"

"_For god's sake!_ [1]Why doesn't anyone understand me?"

"What I understand is that you're embarrassed to be with my son in the presence of my grandchildren."

"At last!"

"You doesn't need to" she smiled and took my hand "My grandchildren adore you. You have been like a gift from the gods; they took Audd and in return they have brought you to us, to my grandchildren and to my son" both of us were moved to tears "They won't stop loving you. Leif sure is very happy with this. At first he didn't wanted, but I know how much he worry that you could go with Ivar..."

"I don't say it because of that" Helga narrowed her eyes and I heard her thinking she didn't understand anything "I guess it's normal for your children sleep two meters while you are making love with your man."

"If it bothers you that much the children are present, tell Eric. But it is not an unsolvable problem" I ended the conversation and we went back to be closer to the kids.

The kids were doing homework, practicing writing, learning history and Norse religion for a while. We then proceeded to discuss Halvar's party and things that we were going to prepare for the celebration. Erik and Audr were showing Helga and me how they were going to play Eric and me in the surprise we were preparing for Halvar when we heard a male voices near the doorstep.

"All afternoon! Alone, as if I had no wife" Halvar said. The children stopped their games, picked up everything we were doing with the help of their grandmother and the three were planted determined to conceal.

"If she is here, she was at twenty yards" Eric replied.

"I hope Sookie has made cakes" Leif said. I ran to open the door.

"You are here!" I made Leif came in and put him by the fire.

"Are you going to come home someday?" Halvar asked loudly.

"You missed me that much?" Helga asked.

"Never! But I've been all afternoon alone in a house without a woman."

"What it means" Helga said "Is that he had to put together a snack by himself after spending the afternoon snoring in his throne. Oh, by the gods, son, what such beautiful beavers!" I looked at the pile of dead animals Eric was bringing strapped on a string.

"Do you get them near the rapids, where I taught you?" Eric nodded "You were always a good hunter. Better than your brother" he said as if it hurt to speak, and I felt it was not because he cared Eric to be better at something than Leif, but because it hurt to speak of her missing son.

"He has predatory instinct" I said smiling. Eric smiled at me and Helga raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, these are beautiful" She said pointing to two that Eric was carrying in his hands. The two beavers were clear colored, almost white.

"These are for you" Eric said. I caressed their skin.

"For me?"

"The beaver fur is great, warm, soft and does not let water or moisture came in. These are the nicest I've captured" he said pointing the two animals whose skin he had chosen for me and left the other twelve, dark brown and even one animal on the table, of different colors, some clear brown, dark brown and there was even a black one "Not that I have the best hands of the valley to the skin, but I think I can get boots for all of us from these animals" Erik came up to the table and showed his admiration with expressions of astonishment. I stroked his hair. Eric grabbed me by the waist and make me give him a welcome kiss. It was the first time he kissed me in front of his parents. Halvar coughed and Helga smiled excitedly.

"I picked this for you" Leif said, and pulled out from inside his clothes a bouquet of white flowers with fine petals "They are Edelweiss."

"Oh, Edelweiss! Thank you very much, are they beautiful" I smelt them and grabbed a container to put them on the table.

"Haven't you hunted anything big brother?" Erik laughed "Leif has just picked flowers! Leif has just picked flowers!" Crooned, mocking his brother.

"Of course not! These two big yellow ones fell into the traps that I set. "Right, father?"

"Right."

"Leif went hunting, but he screwed up, and instead of a beaver, captured a flower!" Erik shouted, splitting laughter. Leif chased him around the table, despite how tired he was "Poor Leif he think he is great at hunting, but even the silly beavers makes jokes about him" One of the dead beavers fell to the floor with a plop and Eric stopped their game.

"By the way, what were you doing that you were so suffocated?" he grabbed Erik and covered his mouth so he stop teasing his brother with silly rhymes.

"It's a secret!" Audr said whit a hussy smile.

"Are you going to keep secrets from me?" Eric released his son, he picked her up, gave her a somersault and placed on the shoulders.

"Come on, let's go" Helga pushed her husband away "we in the way here." Halvar was going to ask why he was in the way. But he realized it as soon as he saw the family picture we were.

"Okay, okay. Hey, for the party..."

"Which party?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you!" And I told him everything.

"So, son, I need you to come help me kill the animals we'll eat to celebrate the victory... a goat ..."

"Okay" the children and I were assigning the pieces leaned on the table.

"We may also need to kill some young sow" he said.

"As you wish" but Eric was already focused on us, with his hand leaning on his son, Leif, shoulder and the other hand caressing my nape. "I'll take the ones Leif has hunted."

"Which one is for me?" asked the girl. Halvar gave up, and left pulled by his wife from the arm.

"The black one" his father said "It'll make two lovely booties. What you hide from me, anyway?"

"It's a secret! ... We cannot tell" Audr said. Eric frowned.

"To him we can tell and we have to tell" I told "You don't want we throw him out from home while we practicing, right?" the girl laughed softly.

"What's going on?" He pulled his daughter down and left her on the bench.

"A theater performance!" Erik shouted.

"Ah, I want to tell him before" protested Audr "We are going to per..."

"A theater performance" Erik interrupted "It's like... like..."

"I'll explain to you, I'll explain to you!" Audr insisted.

"Let's see, you explain it to me" Erik opened his mouth to continue, but his father covered it with one of his huge hands "Listen to your sister."

"Well... well... it's a theater performance, and the theater is... is... is when... Sookie!" I laughed.

"We'll represent the fight against Harald and his men. The children will perform as you, the adults, and our enemies."

"I'll be you!" Erik got to say.

"What about me?" Leif asked at the end.

"Didn't you want to be grown up?" Erik asked him "Well this is just for kids."

"Erik..." I scolded him.

"Okay, okay. You can still perform as Harald the evil one" The young Erik granted.

"I don't want to perform as Harald!"

"And you won't play Harald" I comforted "So far we have only spoken of the plot (the attack to the people we represent, rescue boats and victory over enemies)"

"My father will be thrilled. You can play your grandfather, Leif."

"I don't want to be the grandfather" Leif said "He didn't fight."

"Yes he did" Eric said "And very bravely, as always."

"I rather be you."

"But I'll play as him!"

"We've talked about it, and we'll draw lots" I picked up a stone, put my arms behind my back and played with the stone passing from hand to hand. Leif and Eric chose one arm each one, I pulled my hands out and showed them. Leif ducked his head and Erik jumped with joy.

"Well, alea jacta est[2]. Leif, you have to be Halvar or Helgi, you choose."

"I'll be Sookie" Audr told Eric, grabbing his hand. He pinched her little nose.

"But we don't have a Harald!" Erik said "No one of the other kids wanted to play him"

"Well, if anyone wants to play him, I'll do it" I said.

"You cannot be Harald! You're a girl!" protested the middle son of the family.

"I'll play Harald" Eric intervened.

"Do you?" we asked all at once. He nodded.

"But you can't be Harald, father" Erik told him "You are much more strong, tall, handsome, clever, brave and better than Harald the stinky" I laughed "Or not?!"

"Much better."

"But if you don't know the old Harald!" He laughed. "However, I do."

"Because you defeated him!" Erik sighed.

"Harald wasn't actually on the boats, in the boats was his lieutenant and right hand Einarr Hawkeye" Eric told his children the adventure the attack was (all very sweetened) and the kids were making a mental note of the moments that were going to play in front of the whole village. After his story, Eric and Leif were to wash and change their clothes and Erik stayed building his own castles in the air.

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><p>[1] She said it in English.<p>

[2] Die is cast


	27. Chapter 27

Day four... fourth chapter

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><p><strong>Chapter 27<strong>

Pam ducked her head and crouched down like a dog which hide its ears and the tail between its legs, hearing the piercing cry of her master. A scream in frustration and helplessness. What was happening?

Months before...

Eric Northman awoke minutes before the sun went down that night, restless with a sense of unease inappropriate for his age and vampire condition. He inhaled deeply, although he didn't need to, and tried to calm down. His creature, Pam, would still be dead for the day, but she was fine. And he didn't felt anything disturbing through his bond with Sookie, perhaps she was still sleeping, resting to be ready at night to live with him. But he wasn't sure... he rubbed his eyes (another unnecessary act) and stretched when his cell phone started beeping. As he stood and watched the flashing red light on the landline indicating he had messages waiting, in that moment he knew something was wrong. His mobile was at hand, so he took it and jump up out from bed to stand up in his feet: Text message from Jason Stackhouse: Come as soon as you are awake. Sookie's brother will never call him. If he need something from him, he would ask his sister to intercede in his behalf. If Sookie didn't call was because she couldn't call or she was in danger.

He reached for the phone and dialed Stackhouse, approached the landline and hit the button to listen to the messages, waiting to hear the voices of the shifter and the werewolf. If Sookie was in danger and she needed help and if her brother was aware of his condition, he would have called Herveaux and/or Sookie's boos to do during the day what he couldn't: protect her.

The messages began to play to be listened.

Beep

"Eric, I'm Jason, Sookie's brother. What did you...? … Hang up, Jason, if he did, he isn't going to tell you."

Beep

"Eric, I'm Jason Stackhouse, call me as soon as you get up."

Beep

"Eric, it's me again, come flying to Captain Henry hospital as soon as you wake up, something has happened."

Beep

"It's me, wake up, fuck, and come here, fuck up."

Ring. Ring.

He placed the cell phone in his ear. After several rings, somebody answer the phone.

"Eric."

"Stackhouse. Explain yourself."

"Haven't you heard my message? Why are not you here?"

"Here where?"

"The hospital."

"It won't be totally dark until few minutes. What the fuck is going on?"

"You tell me. Have you done it?"

"What have they done to her?" silence "I'm flying there" he hung up. He dressed quickly and left his bedroom. There was still sunlight, but it wouldn't harm him too much. He opened the door and took off.

He used the glamor with the woman at the front desk, skipping the line of people in front of him and all the protests and ran at vampire speed in the direction they had pointed him: the Intensive Care Unit.

In a room with several glazed and insulated booths were Jason, Sookie's brother, and Sam Merlotte, her boss and friend. Inside one of these cabins, around which her relatives gathered, was Sookie. She lay on a bed with white sheets and white pillows attached to a lot of machines around her, and each on emitting its own repertoire of sounds. She had an intravenous line attached to a hand.

"I found her at the foot of the stairs. I don't know what could have happened" Jason said, acknowledging by the face of worry, indignation, frustration and anger of the vampire, he had nothing to do with what ever had happened to his sister.

"Soon we'll find out" Eric replied. He opened the glass door, a nurse tried to stop him and called to the others, but the vampire ignored them. Eric bit his wrist and held it to the lips of his wife. Blood dripped into her mouth. The bump on her head soon disappeared and the other scratches that were covered by the sheets, too.

"¡Mister, Mister!" Several nurses tried to pull him away from Sookie.

"Help!"

"¡He's a vampire!" shouted one of the nurses, when Eric pushed her because she was falling over Sookie.

"What are you doing?" A doctor asked "¡Oh, fuck!" he cried when he saw Eric's fangs "Did you give her V?"

"I gave her my blood. This woman is mine."

"Why don't she wake up?" Jason wanted to know "I thought that your blood cured everything."

"It should" He looked to the side and another "What has happened?"

"We do not know."

"And what do you know?" he asked grabbing the doctor from his coat. He stammered and Eric used the glamor.

"She have a nasty blow to the front of the head. We think that's what has caused the coma. She also has other bruises on knees, elbows and ribs, presumably because of the fall. There aren't signs of struggle or physical violence. We've done a CAT scan but she didn't have any perceptible lesions in the brain... but, but..."

"What?"

"We don't know why she's still unconscious."

"Run another test" and released him. He went from there stumbling. Eric turned to Jason "Tell me what you know" Jason took a deep breath and stroked the back of his hand to Sookie.

"Sam called me this noon, because he wasn't able to contact my sister and she hasn't showed in the bar. I went to my grandmother's house, I knocked at the door but did not answer. So I used my key and I found Sookie at the foot of the stairs. She was wearing a silk nightie, but nothing more. I called an ambulance and that's it. The paramedics said that she must have fallen down the stairs, because of the bruises and her posture. They checked her neck was okay and loaded her into the ambulance, and then here, they did the tests and told me she had just a bad blow in her head and she was in a coma and they didn't know when she will wake up. I thought you could fix it."

"Gentlemen?" A man dressed in suit and tie approached them "Is there family of Sookie Stackhouse?"

"I am her brother" Jason said.

"I am the attorney for the hospital. I brought these papers so you could check them out."

"What are they?"

"Urgency health care, hospital admission and the tests done to your sister bills. You see, your sister doesn't have insurance, and the hospital has to be sure that you are able to afford the expenses."

"I..." a roar was heard and suddenly the lawyer was lying on his back on the floor with a huge Viking vampire pissed on top of him. Eric got into his mouth a handful of bills.

"Do the tests to her."

"Yes sir" a pair of stretcher bearers, at the signal from lawyer, approached the bed and proceeded to move Sookie. The doctor received them out of the room and told them where they should take her.

But after four hours, it was showed that Eric's money, like his blood, couldn't do everything, because despite thousand of tests they did to Sookie, they didn't found the cause of her coma, especially after the V, according to doctors, it had fixed all the traumas that the patient had at the time of her admission. Eric was meditating a while, not quite understanding what was happening. He put his thoughts in order and thought the best thing was to go to the root of the problem.

"Stay with her" he asked Jason.

He left the hospital at vampire speed, thinking investigate by himself what had been happen to his wife. He flew to Bon Temps, landed in Sookie's garden and walked through the same door he had left the night before. He saw the crumpled rug at the foot of the stairs, saturated with her aroma. He sniffed at the entrance of the house, but it only smelled like Sookie, Jason, and from the smell of medicine, the humans that came in the ambulance. He climbed the stairs and went sniffing around, the smell seemed to a fairy, but it was a distant aroma, a residue, probably left by Claude and Dermot long time ago. In Sookie's room the bed was unmade. It smelled like her, a vampire and sex. It smelled of them. Whatever would have happened to her, it must had happened immediately after he leave. His side of the bed was still undone. Sookie asked him not to go, to stay with her, she ever had joked with the possibility that something could happen, but still, he had gone...


	28. Chapter 28

Fifth Day, Fifth Chapter

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><p><strong>Chapter 28<strong>

He flew back to the hospital, he went without anyone could see him and leaned over Sookie's bed.

"Have they done these tests?" he asked.

"Yes" Jason replied with a rueful tone.

"Well?"

"Let the doctor tell you. I... I don't understand anything" He was going to rush out after him when he saw him appear behind a curtain. The doctor saw Eric, wrote something in the patient's folder that he was visiting, he left it at the foot of the bed and he fixed his glasses and headed to where they were standing.

"We have run all the tests to your friend and..."

"She's my wife" he interrupted. The doctor looked at Jason who nodded.

"Well, we have done all the tests to your wife and effectively, your blood, as you said, has erased all traces of the bruises and injuries which she had when was admitted this morning."

"Why doesn't she wake up?" he got his nerves to talk to humans.

"That, sir, I don't know what to answer. There is no medical reason why she shouldn't be awake. It's all I can say. Let's disconnect from machines" He told to a nurse and they began to turn off all the monitors and taking off the stickers.

"She doesn't need them?" Eric asked.

"Not at all. The IV feeding line is all she need, because she cannot take food by herself, obviously."

"Perfect" he said. He went to Sookie, he pulled the needle serum, he licked the droplets of blood, closed the wounds with his saliva and picked her up.

"What are you doing? Where do you think you are going?"

"Let him do it!" Jason scared him "Are you going to take her to Fangtasia, so that doctor of your can check her?" Eric nodded and run out from there at vampire speed.

She was so cold, almost frost. He held her against his chest during the flight, feeling sorry about been unable to keep her warm with his body heat. He landed in the alley of Fangtasia, on the back door. Pam received him at once. She was dressed in a red tube dress that shone like patent leather, long sleeves, plunging neckline and short above the knees.

"What has happened? You are not answering your phone. What happens to Sookie?"

"Call Ludwig."

"Immediately" She stood there, typing a number while Eric was heading to his office. He called one of the humans who worked at the bar and asked him to bring a stove or a radiator like the ones that the staff used in showers. The boy happily obeyed, happy that Eric addressed to him directly. He lay Sookie on the couch and left her in the most comfortable position he could, then covered her with some towels that he had there.

"I've seen a fangbanger out there in the line, with a fur coat. Took it from her!" Eric ordered. Pam came back in and they both covered Sookie in the best way they could. Pam watched her master stroke Sookie's hair.

"Ludwig is coming to here. Let me comb and fix her, you know how she is" Eric backed off and let his creature groom his wife "Did I want to tell me now what had happened?"

"I don't know" he said. But then he told her everything that had happened after finding Sookie in that shape.

"And she didn't wake up after drinking your blood?" Eric shook his head when somebody knock on the door.

"The doctor, master" announced a vampire.

"Which kind of mythical and fearsome creature have you got in your way this time Miss Stackhouse?" Eric helped with the heavy bag. The little doctor went to the sofa, rolled up, bent over Sookie and Eric felt while repeating the story of the day; neither had he kept to himself what happened over the night. He didn't know what to think. Too much excitement during sex could make that kind of damaged?

"And you say that you have given her your blood in the hospital..." Ludwig took a gleaming scalpel and she made a small cut on Sookie's wrist, licked and tasted the blood "Strange. She doesn't have any apparent injuries" she said after palpating her head again "and there is no trace of any poison, at least one that I know of, in aroma or flavor. And although I sense a slight hint of magic sharper than usual for her, it's not rare for Miss Stackhouse. But this is not natural, that I'm sure. If it had it been natural, your blood, vampire, would have healed her."

"Then?"

"Then I focus on something that vampire blood cannot cure."

"Like what?"

"Like nothing. A vampire is able to boot from the clutches of death itself to a dying man. Unfortunately, your waitress is not a wholly human. It is unclear how vampire blood works in other magical creatures, and less in the fairies, but what is certain is that the blow that human doctors say caused her unconsciousness is fully cured. I must investigate further" She gathered her things and take small steps approaching to the door "Norseman, it'll be better that until I have a diagnosis, you let her in the care of a human doctor. She'll need intravenous feeding."

"I would rather that you take care of her" Eric told her apprehensively.

"I have more patients, young man."

"I money won't be a problem" she looked at him frowning "I'll owe you a big favor" she smiled. Evidently, she liked that more. Eric was an ancient vampire with a position of power today and in the future his position could be even better in the supernatural and vampire hierarchy.

"Okay, okay. I have to go see someone now, but you take her home while I can go and check her and stay with her."

"She'll stay in my house" Eric said.

"She'll be better in hers, so she can be attended by a nurse."

"She'll be in my house, safe."

"She'll only be safe during night, but anyway... I don't have time to discuss it now. Do you have outside rooms, where she can get some sun? Well put her there" She continued when he nodded, walked out through the door and left escorted by her driver.

"I won't be at the bar tonight" he informed Pam "Come to my house when you close."

"Be careful" his creature told him.

"Pay the fur coat to the lady" Eric went out the back door, with Sookie in his arms. He arrived to his home in a few minutes and grab a royalty from the freezer and warmed it up in the microwave then he dress the bed for Sookie with red Egyptian cotton sheets. And even he hated it, and he had sworn to his wife that when she least expect it he would tear it up and throw it to the trash because it was horrible, he finished up pulling out from a drawer that Sookie had appropriated to store her stuff, a pink plush pajamas with gray elephants. It was just awful, but on cold nights Sookie liked to put it. And he put up with anything as long as she stayed at home. A thousand years to finish becoming a wimp.

Pam came close at four in the morning, Eric raised an eyebrow and asked where she had been when the bar had been closed at two. She simply replied that she had been "paying" the fur coat that Eric, in his infinite generosity, had given Sookie. The young vampire went upstairs to visit her friend and took care of her, aplaying some skin lotion in her face. The doctor of the supernatural arrived about an hour just before dawn and Eric was very, very angry.

"Births of the goblins are easy and painless" she defended herself "but long. Each goblin can give birth up to eleven pups."

"I don't give a damn" Eric confessed.

"Let's take another look at your fairy, Norseman. Let's see... I brought the dropper, but she will need a nurse during the day to change the bag when it's emptied. No argument. Also" she said when he saw Eric opened his mouth to interrupt "someone will have to clean Miss Stackhouse."

"I'll shower her" Eric said.

"I wasn't talking of that kind of cleaning up, vampire. You have been a few hours with her, so you may have noticed that in her coma, she craps and pee in her pants. If you clean her up, she will be ashamed. What is it?" She asked after seeing Eric's frown.

"She hadn't done it" Eric said.

"There was an adult diaper in your office at Fangtasia, I guess it was the one that they put her in the hospital. Right?"

"But it was clean."

"Did she had an IV in the hospital?"

"Of course" his cell phone started beeping. It was Jason.

"Where have you taken my sister?"

"Come to my house, I need someone trustable to take care of her while I'm dead during the day" He didn't answer, but Eric heard Jason's truck engine roar before hanging. Then?" he asked to the doctor.

"Now more than ever I must investigate. I'll have someone I can trust to come to be with your waitress during the day. He is my apprentice, a mongrel elf."

"You should let Stackhouse" Pam commented referring to Jason "take her to Bon Temps. It isn't good that so many people outside our common circle be at your home. I don't trust."

"I don't care."

"Eric is dangerous."

"I will move to another house!" The Viking roared. Pam bent her head bowed but she frowned. For her Eric's safety was as important and vital as Sookie's safety was for him. Jason arrived a few minutes before sunrise, he has some bags with him bringing supplies for the day, because, he said, he had no intention of leaving his sister at any time. Not after what had happened with the fairies.

Pam stayed to spend the day there. She succumbed as soon as the sun came over Shreveport's horizon but Eric withstood stoically in his room in the basement until the elf showed up. He wouldn't let come into his home to take care of his wife, a complete stranger, even when he came highly recommended by Ludwig. The doctor made the introductions slowly, calmly, knowing by the glint in Eric's eyes that he had trouble staying awake in such circumstances. He'd had time to talk to Jason alone before the assistant doctor arrived, so they had a plan of defense and surveillance plotted out. Jason made a gesture of complicity to the vampire and accompanied the two doctors to the room where his sister was.

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><p>Next Marathon when it reaches 250 reviews<p> 


	29. Chapter 29

I know I have promised a marathon every 50 reviews, and you posted 67 reviews. I know you will make me post a chapter daily until I finish the story but I want to write my own stories so this is the deal I will post a marathon every 75 reviews but between marathons I will take a couple of days to write my own stories.

I promised marathon So let's began! Day one.

* * *

><strong>Chapter 29<strong>

Jason awoke with a start when he realized that he had fallen asleep. Hustler with fright, looked at his sister, who was in the same position.

"You can take a nap if you wish" the elf said. He looked like a normal man, but he looked weird: sharp nose, thin and manly lips, small, slightly pointed ears and almond-shaped blue eyes. One could look at him because of two reasons: because he was extremely handsome and at the same time he was very ugly. It was weird.

"No, no, better not. I'll sleep tonight" Jason said.

"As you wish."

"How is she?"

"Same as fifteen minutes ago, with no change"

"Ok" He had slept for just fifteen minutes, that was all, and the worst was another fifteen minutes went by, Jason thought that was a little insufferable, remain silent with the creature in the room, both looking at Sookie as two dumb statues, but the elf didn't seem to be bothered with the situation "So you're an elf, eh?" the other looked at him askance "I'd never met one, before" silence "Are you ... you know, like Legolas?" More silence and Jason thought that like everyone else, the elves didn't like to talk about their world and their race. Fuck with the supernatural secrecy.

"I'm not immortal" he said at last, in a clear voice "although very long-lived. I still have quite a few centuries of life."

"Lucky you" Jason wondered how many years must have, despite his youthful appearance. Maybe a couple of centuries.

"I'm twenty-three years old" he confessed "and I just finished my medical studies at Oxford University in England."

"Oh" The elf looked at the time, got up and went back to monitor his sister with some gadgets that had been in his bag "My mentor says you're a panther man."

"Only in part. One of them bit me and I have to shift every full moon, but not as one of thoroughbred"

"Does your sense of smell is as good as them?"

"The truth is yes."

"Haven't you noticed anything unusual on your sister in the last few hours?"

"Like what?" The truth was that it had seemed to smell like smoke.

"As if she was near a fire and she became impregnated of the smell of wood smoke" Jason looked suspicious and the other's eyes gleamed "It seemed to me"

He spent the day pecking at the food: sandwiches, chips, snacks, several cans of cola... yet the elf only drank a glass of fresh orange juice.

The doctor arrived shortly before nightfall, talked awhile with Aerin (the elf, who between the men called himself Irving) and then she began to check Sookie too. Eric showed up in the room a few minutes before nightfall. He looked bad, and he walked with some difficulty because although the light couldn't kill him, clarity bothered him.

"How is she?"

"No change" Ludwig replied him.

"Did you find out anything?"

"No" she replied. The elf coughed.

"I think, I have figured out something" Eric questioned him raising an eyebrow "I've seen this before, but never in human beings."

"Miss Stackhouse isn't quite human" Ludwig replied him.

"Neither have I seen it in any magical creature" then everyone looked at him attentively "From what I have seen during the day, your sister" he explained to Jason "doesn't have any biological need and doesn't need the drip at all, she doesn't require IV feeding."

"¡Come on! Tell at once where you saw it! Eric yelled at him.

"On animals" he stammered a bit. He didn't like vampires. He was a creature of the day "Your girlfriend..."

"Wife."

"Your wife" he corrected himself "She is like in a state of hibernation."

"Like bears?" Jason asked.

"Well... It's the closest thing I've seen to what's happening. During the months when these animals hibernate, they have their metabolism very slow, they don't eat, don't urinate, don't..."

"Ok. Ok." Eric interrupted him "So? My human woman is hibernating as a woodchuck?

"It's all I could think about it. What it's happening to your wife has no explanation" He replied with some bitterness.

"You should keep thinking."

"I think the guy is right" Ludwig agreed with him "Obviously Aerin isn't saying that Sookie is hibernating like a bear, but it's true that it's more or less what is happening."

"And has she reached that point in natural circumstances?" Eric asked "Is it something that happens to fairies?"

"Not at all. As I already stated, I haven't seen any magical creature became like this" confirmed Ludwig.

"Well, vampires are dead during the day. It also resembles it. Perhaps an overdose of vampire blood undigested because of her fairy heritage..." Eric roared.

"Are you saying that I've done it to her?" The elf paused "Have I don't it to her?"

"I don't know" intervened Ludwig "We must investigate further. I had told you with the amount of vampire blood that Miss Stackhouse has drunk over these years she might well have become a vampire, however, she hasn't. Don't give her more of your blood at this moment. We don't know if this is a side effect. We will investigate" Ludwig assured, this had aroused her curiosity.

"Sookie doesn't need a nurse and her life isn't in danger" Aerin reported "My presence here isn't necessary, but there is a library I'd like to check. If you do not mind" He said addressing Ludwig "I would do some research."

"O.k. go"

"Whatever it takes" Eric said. The two doctors packed up and left the room whispering "Jason, thanks for taking care of her. Rest tonight while I watch her.

"Are you sure?"

"I'll be with her all night."

Of course, Eric stayed with her that night and the following nights. But there came a time that even he wanted to take turns with Pam at Fangtasia, no one could watch her night and day because Jason had to work.

Even though Eric didn't want, Pam and Jason convinced him to move Sookie to Bon Temps. It had been two weeks after the fall of the waitress and the strange things that happened after it. Sookie was still in that state of hibernation, however, occasionally they had perceived odors in her skin that appeared there like something magical. She smelled of smoke, cold, sea water, to pitch or other people. And that was what most worried them... all of them. They were super-controlling the visits and everyone the panther, the shifter and the vampire agreed that what happened to her, was foreign to them.

Organizing in Bon Temps was much easier than done it in Shreveport. Most of the evenings were covered by Eric, but until he arrived Pam or Bill or Bubba used to stay with her. The sheriff had enough confidence in these guards. The day was usually covered by Jason or Sam because Eric didn't trust completely in the werewolf or in any one of Sookie's brother herd and he certainly didn't trust in any of both faeries. However, he trusted in the shifter.

And for more banter, things in the vampire world weren't much better. There was such a marked lull in the Louisiana's kingdom and Victor had been so calm that Eric got goose bumps at every breath of cold air that showed. Something was brewing, sure. He had called Felipe twice in the last week to make sure everything was ok, and he had been in contact with sheriffs in other states and they all seemed to agree that such an unusual calm in Louisiana could only be precedent of great evils.

He was going to warm a True Blood in Sookie's microwave when his cell phone rang. He answer but he didn't said a thing.

"Mister Northman?"

"Yes."

"I'm Aerin the elf, Mrs. Ludwig helper."

"I've been waiting three weeks to hear from you."

"Well, I have been living in a library for three weeks" he replied. Eric smiled to himself, because obviously wasn't the daring that made the elf speak him in that way, the elf was just tired "I'll go over your wife's house and tell you what I learned."

"I'm looking forward" He took the bottle of blood and drank it with a gesture of disgust.

"I can bring a cat, sir, there are many" Bubba, appearing from nowhere, said from the window. The unfortunate vampire felt a strange affinity for Sookie, despite he wasn't very bright, his loyalty and dedication to the service made Bubba a trustable fellow.

"No thanks. You don't need to watch over Miss Sookie tonight, Bubba and I'll be here with her.

"Okeydokey" and he ran like a lighting to the swamp to hunt who knows what.

Ludwig's car arrived two hours after Aerin called, the elf went out of the car but the doctor waited for the help of her chauffeur. Eric opened the door.

"Help my child with everything that brings" said the doctor. Eric saw Aerin struggling with a heavy suitcase.

"No, I can do it" He smiled. He came into the house with the bag and opened it in the living room "These are all books about supernatural diseases that I considered interesting for our case: I focused on fairies and vampires; although about faeries there is little information because they are very jealous of their privacy. However, vampires...

"Sookie isn't a vampire" Eric said.

"But she has ingested lots of vampire blood right? When I found nothing about fairies, I oriented my research in that way."

"And what did you find?" Ludwig said.

"Not much. Almost nothing makes a vampire sick, although they can be poisoned with the blood of a sick man, of course, in which case they would have a couple of bad nights, but that's it. They also suffer from psychosomatic illnesses, especially depression. And finally, there are the diseases caused after a failed conversion. In this case it isn't that vampire is sick, is that the process failed at some point, the magic hasn't worked as it should, and this causes irreversible consequences."

"So you think so much vampire blood has left Sookie in that state?"

"I thought it... for a while. But if so, Miss Sookie couldn't stand the sunlight and would have to consume blood. No, I think that is not the case."

"So we haven't advanced at all" Eric said.

"We know that you didn't caused it" the elf said and Eric stared at him "Of course, if it wasn't caused by a vampire, it must be something else. Tired of not sleeping and eating poorly and having covered the most important libraries of the supernatural world: Oxford, Budapest, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Rome... without success, I thought to call and apologize. I thought I couldn't help you. And being in Paris, What do you think happened?"

"Enlighten me."

"I saw a parade."

"Good for you" The elf pulled out a Disney child movie and handed it to Eric.

"Suddenly I realized that I had been looking in the wrong books!" Eric turned it to see the cover: The Sleeping Beauty "There is more information of the supernatural world in stories, myths and legends written by humans than in many of the books that we keep in our libraries. _Sleeping Beauty_ is an old European story, there are several sources, but the main thing is that the protagonist is a young woman who is mired in a perpetual sleep, like Sookie up there, induced by the spell of an evil witch and who will only be saved by the prince in question."

"It's a joke right?" Eric asked.

"No."

"I know the power of witches, but are they really capable of this?"

"In the modern story is a witch who casts a spell to the Beauty, but in European versions is a fairy who cursed her. Fairies are present in all versions, being good or bad. It may seem incredible, but I think Miss Stackhouse is living her own fairy tale."

"Fairies..." Eric growled.

"And the symptoms are the same. Moreover, the sleeping princess came to sleep for a hundred years, until the spell was broken without losing an iota of youth or beauty."

"What are we supposed to do?" Eric asked a little irritated "Do I go upstairs and kiss her and see if she wakes up?"

"Only if you're her true love" the elf said convinced and Eric went to him to break his face. The boy hid behind Doctor, who didn't protect him that much.

"Norseman, Norseman, you don't kill the messenger" Ludwig added "Of course, in all this nonsense, it's the only thing with some sanity. Although her fairy "friends" put Miss Stackhouse to sleep, it seems clear is that this spell won't be broken with the first love kiss.


	30. Chapter 30

Day two... second chapter.

So this the third marathon... Next when I get the review number 315.

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><p><strong>Chapter 30<strong>

"What are you doing, if I may ask?" Pam asked, she had just levitate up window.

"Nothing" Eric replied.

"You were going to kiss her" His creature laughed.

"No. Besides, I've already kissed her."

"And?"

"Obviously nothing happened."

"Maybe you're not her true love."

"Pamela..."

"Victor has come to Fangtasia today" she said to change the subject quickly, though the smile remained on her face.

"Again?"

"Again" she confirmed "It sucks"

"It sucks, yes."

"Eric..."

"What?" he never took his eyes off his wife. He had always the bond opened, and in the last two months he was sending waves of love and in return he perceived Sookie's sensations: sometimes fear, almost always love, tenderness, affection, confusion, anger. It was almost as if she was awake and often wondered what she was dreaming and what kind of magic they had used on her making her cheeks and the tip of the nose icy when inside the house it was at thirty degrees of heat; what kind of magic had been used against her so she smelled like sea salt, sweat, or wood smoke even when they just bathed her. And above all, what magic they used that made her smell like other people... she smelled of childhood, like children.

"He had asked me the bills for the last two months. And he has asked me about her"

"What did you say?"

"That I appreciate his concern" Eric smiled "Hell attack you there" Pam came to Sookie's bed and stroked her friend's hair. She took the comb and started to comb "I've bought a terrific shampoo, Brazilian keratin, you'll see the way her hair looks" Eric growled "Although since she had been in this bed she has the most beautiful hair ever, shiny and silky, don't you think?" Another grunt "Like yours" she commented "Was the werewolf here today?"

"Indeed."

"He has kissed her."

"I've noticed."

"At least it hasn't worked. Do you think the shifter had also kissed her?"

"Pamela, you're very chatty. Very chatty."

"Fangtasia misses you, the accounts aren't suffering losses, but the incomes aren't as bulky as when you preside over the bar. And Victor lurking and waiting to attack by any side..."

"Tomorrow you'll stay with her and I'll go to the bar."

"One night we should allow them to see both of us at once" she told him "Jason Stackhouse could stay, or maybe the dog too."

"I'll tell Bill."

"Oh, he'll be delighted. We should also spend some time in the Fangs over Heels, girls miss you..."

"I'm sure you have them quite entertained."

"And I've tasted them all."

"I'm not interested."

"But it's your business, you should stop by and see how things work. When you awake" she said to her friend "we'll repeat our performance there."

Eric spent the next three nights meeting his obligations, he dropped by Fangtasia, to the delight of fangbangers, until the bar closed. He realized several things he didn't like. Pam was a wonderful daughter and a great businesswoman, but a vampire only has nights to live, and two businesses as a vampire bar and strip club, were too much for one vampire. Not with the profit margin that the two businesses were generating to both of them. The first thing Eric noted that he didn't like was that there were a couple of vampires who had to ride roughshod the banning of biting the humans within the four walls of the bar. The second was that one of his girls had been turned by a foreign vampire usual to zone five from Mississippi's kingdom, the third was that people were beginning to forget who was in charge and the fourth was that the Sun Fellowship Church was a pain in the ass.

They had got into his strip bar and they had assaulted a girl, and now he had a hospital bill to pay. He spoke with the girl and the police had spoken to him, because even though the dancer refused, the police had no choice but to file an accusation. The cops had assured him that they would investigate, but Eric didn't trust them much.

It seemed stupid to sit there doing nothing when he could be accompanying Sookie, not that in her room he did much, but at least he was with her. Pam came to offer him a girl in her earliest twenties, but he refused, instead he asked his progeny to bring him a bottle of O positive. As he drank, he noticed something weird, and in a second Pam stood by his side. A bunch of cops, among whom were a couple of vampires, came into Fangtasia calling a raid.

"Yesterday they told me they will come to talk with me about the thing that happened in the Fangs over heels" Pam told him in Old Norse.

"Well something isn't right" he replied "Why would they make a raid just when you expect their visit?"

"Exactly. Alert!" he greeted.

"Lieutenant Vampire."

"What brings you to my humble bar?"

"A tip-off, sale of narcotics: V" Eric raised an eyebrow, and antinarcotics came in with dogs.

"Search as much as you want and then have a drink or a soda if you prefer" for a moment, the police chief was thrilled when one of the dogs came to the throne excited, but the dog just looking to scratch a few caresses from Eric "You know? Dogs do not usually like vampires, but I've always gotten along with them."

"They are smarter than people" Pam said.

"Take him to keep looking."

"You will find nothing, Captain."

"Lieutenant" he hissed.

"Dogs have a nose, but no better than vampires" Eric said "Your partners of my race know as well as I do that there are no prohibited substances in this bar. Although the guy in the Ramones T-Shirt smoked marijuana this afternoon and that girl in the purple shirt, I'm afraid that she has contaminated her nose with something strange and that other..."

"Leave it" The chief dissuaded.

"True" a vampire policeman confirmed "There's nothing here, sir."

"Keep looking" The tension, the grin on the lips, dry mouth, rapid pulse, dilated pupils of the agent confirmed Eric that something was wrong.

"Who sent you?" he asked "They are distracting us, Pam."

"I realize. Sookie?"

"She's fine, she's with Bill. This is up to Victor. What he could be up to?"

"Nothing good" Pam said. The policeman who was in charge looked at his watch and waited, dogs sniffed but of course didn't find anything. After forty minutes looking and finding nothing, the police chief got a call and they left. Eric called Sookie at the minute, but Bill assured him that all was quiet there.

After restoring calm to the bar as he could, he left to the parking lot, he was going to flight to Bon Temps when he saw a vampire who used to hang out in Louisiana's area two, accompanied by another vampire related to the sheriff of area one of the state. He came into the bar and ordered every vampires under his charge to go out, but Sarah, whom he ordered to take out humans by the back door and keep them away from there as far as she could. As he went out, he found a troop of not less than thirty vampires. From area one and area two.

He saw Pam gloating over the idea of a fight.

"Ni hao, Li Shang" Pam greeted the second in command from area two, a vampire of about three hundred years, perhaps older than her "Where is your master, creator and sheriff?

"Busy with other matters."

"They are with the king" Eric told his progeny "That's why they were distracting us, so we wouldn't go to help Felipe. And if they come after us, it's because De Castro has fallen."

"Indeed, Viking."

"Let me take care of the Chinese" Pam asked.

"All yours" and they take battle positions.


	31. Chapter 31

**Translator's note:** I know I promised a chapter per day but on Saturday and Sunday I couldn't upload anything so I will try to post the three chapters today.

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><p><strong>Chapter 31<strong>

He kicked a head and whitewashed it to Fangtasia's ceiling.

"It's a goal!" he announced. He picked up the phone, his mouth full of blood, and called Bill to request him and Bubba to have their eyes open and look after Sookie. Then he called Alcide, the shifter and witches, he called everyone. He guessed that Victor had been successful and had killed Felipe and supposed that he will be the following. But he wouldn't make it easy for that stupid.

He had a lot of friends: human and supernatural beings. There were two hours before dawn and he didn't think Victor would had time to organize another attack. But he had time to prepare his defense and to prepare a counter attack the next day. Victor wasn't going to be like Felipe, he didn't think he could convince Victor to keep him in the sheriff position, because Victor hated and feared him, and he did well.

"Pam, hide well tonight. I don't want to risk something happening to you. I'm flying to Bon Temps to see Sookie."

"Do you think it's a good idea?"

"Of course it is" and he fly from there. He knew she was ok, and that allowed him to go talk to the shifter and ask him to come to Sookie's house before dawn. He didn't want to leave her unprotected not even for twenty seconds. Flying over the driveway of Sookie's house he saw Bubba patrolling.

"Keep your eyes open, Bubba."

"Yes, sir."

"Sookie could be in danger."

"Bubba will take care of Miss Sookie, sir."

"All right. Bubba, do not trust any vampire, you can only trust Bill, Pam and me" He continued flying and went into Sookie's room through the window. Bill opened it for him "It's hot in here."

"But she is very cold" he answered, and Eric check her, he was right. She has cheeks and thighs icy "Have you spoken with the elf?"

"Nothing, we are stuck. We know it is a fairy spell, but otherwise, nothing. No explanation for these things... the cold, the smells. I wonder if she dreams..."

"Maybe. She is fine. I can feel it in my blood. I don't know what kind of spell keeps her like this, but sometimes she is glad, almost always; though others, she's scared, angry, and sometimes feels extremely happy" Eric didn't tell him that from a time now, she even gotten sexually aroused, and that was driving him crazy. But he still was getting waves of love on her part "I'll bring you back" he whispered her placing a rebellious lock behind her ear "We must find a safe place to sleep."

"You can do it at my home."

"Victor is smart. I'm not convinced that we will be safe. No, we better look somewhere else, I think..." Bill and he turned swiftly towards Sookie. Eric uncorked surprise. He held her hand, bleeding, for a clean cut across her palm.

"She didn't have that before" the southern apologized.

"I know" He took her hand to his mouth and licked the wound "What are they doing to you?" he whispered. He and Bill decided to spend the day at different points near Sookie's house, but hidden enough so Victor day men couldn't find them even if they tried.

He called Pam as soon as he opened his eyes, he had not yet emerged from underground. His progeny was fine. He scratched the earth layer, moist and soft, making his way toward the surface. He came out covered with humus, sniffed the air and tried to discover who had wandered during the day near Sookie's house.

He rummaged through his hair and managed to pull out the worm that had become entangled in his hair and tickled his scalp. Suddenly, he felt good and knew it was going to be a good night after all.

He sprinted across the field and reached the battered home of his wife, no less than twenty supernatural creatures, including shifters, werewolves and panthers, waited him in the doorway. There was also the witch Sookie's friend, who had come with a small coven.

"Hey, Sheriff!" Amelia came to greet him and Pam "You now have all of us here and now?

"Now nothing. You're friends with Sookie and just for that I intend you to help me, for the good of all, but won't force you. Victor is coming tonight, I don't think he will take more than an hour to get here, and he will come to kill me, my progeny and all the vampires in my area; He can even try to end my allies."

"That's why we are here" Alcide defended.

"Witches are no match for the vampires and creatures coming, but I hope you'll keep Sookie, helpless as she is, safe."

"No problem."

"And we know some other spell that can hurt vampires, very badly" said another witch.

"Now, unfortunately, it doesn't distinguish between our side and the other, that is, that doesn't help us at all. We'll get to keep Sookie safe" Amelia said, and came into Sookie's house.

"Stackhouse, did you bring me what I asked?"

"Here is it" Jason handed Eric a sports bag from Adidas. Eric unzipped and began to divide weapons: he hid a knife in his pants, laid an ax in his back and grabbed a sword that was almost as tall as Pam. He armed his creature and Jason gave him a hunting rifle loaded Beretta silver bullets and other things of that material "try not to err and use it on me or Pam" shifter, wolves, witches and vampires took positions: in the woods, on the road, inside the house and around it.

A few minutes later he heard the first skirmish indices on the road, howls and roars in the distance. The first vampires reached them smashed on Sookie's porch when they landed.

Sooner than it takes to say "jugular" Pam had jumped over a black vampire and she had slashed her throat, not deep enough to kill her on the spot, but enough to let knock out. She would definitely be dead in a few minutes. Pam always seemed to thrill to give the starting signal for a good fight. There were no less than four outsider vampires of each one of his area, and it looked like Alcide was containing them well on the road, but they kept coming in from other directions. But despite the difference in the number, he hadn't forgotten how to use the ax and sword.

He tried to take flight to find Victor, who he had glanced at the top of a tree on one occasion and another high above it to him and Pam, without getting into a fight, just watching and waiting in the rear, like a marshal... or as the coward he was.

He wrenched an arm by the roots to a vampire, and licked from his lips drops of blood that had splashed. He was about rip off another member on an enemy when another bloodsucker grabbed his arm and stopped him, he let go of the first, turned around and landed a brutal punch to the second, but the vampire that had been released jumped on him. He sought help from someone in your area, but realized that there were no more than three of them on their feet. He pulled out the dagger from his boot between struggles, slipped out of his rival´s arm as a Greco-Roman wrestler and ripped theirs heads off, first to one, then another, with the small but lethal weapon.

Pam saw break his neck and him a vampire and stay lying down, unable on the floor.

"Damn English whore."

"You insult as bad as you fight" Pam laughed, waited the attack of another vampire and got into a new fight one on one. Eric followed his own. He retrieved his ax from the ground and struck him a mortal blow to the back of an Amerindian vampire. He charged another vampire and clear it blew several teeth and a tusk. He smiled. It wasn't going so bad.

"Northman! Eh, Northman!" he turned and saw Victor with his boot's silver heel on Pam's throat, who was lying on the ground. Madden grinning while Pam squirmed.

Three vampires held him by the arms and subjected with a pair of silver chains rolled to his neck. Pam tried to take traitor Maddens foot off her, despite the silver, but he hit her in the forehead with the heel and left her dizzy, which was fortunate, because after he tore her an ear with a knife. She screamed.

"Pamela..."

"You've fallen" Madden told "but you'll see your progeny die first" he showed him a cane with a gold shaped like a horse head handle "But I won't kill your sleeping beauty, I will wait for her to wake up, and I'll keep her" He raised his cane and raced down.

"No!" Eric shouted. Pam opened her eyes and just when the wood touched her skin a shot was heard and then two screams.

Wood crossed Pam's chest, who gurgled blood, cleft stick in her right lung. Victor felt pain in the liver, where the silver bullet had hit him.

"Forget about my sister, asshole" Jason reloaded the gun, but a vampire jumped on him, they struggled and the vampire snatched the gun, throwing it away. Jason got into his own fight and Eric tried to seize the moment, but they were holding him very well.

Both Victor and Pam vomited blood. At that time, a vampire, came out of nowhere, he wasn't from his area or his kingdom but he intervened in the fight in Jason's, Sookie's brother, favor.

"But what?" One of the vampires who were holding him let him to go into fight with the newcomer. Eric took the commotion, he gathered strength from where none existed and got off the chains of his neck, leaving the skin with them.

The picked up them with bare hands, burning, and throw them to get one of the vampires who had retained him. He picked up the ax from the ground and struck as he could to the other enemy, a brutal ax blow to the knee, which caused him to fall.

He ran to Victor, who was recovering because the bullet had come in and out and pulled out from his leather jacket a stake, a splintered stake and stained with dried blood. He rose and plunged it into his chest.

"Don't chat with who you have to kill" the Viking said, while the traitor got his eyes white and life definitely abandoned him. He looked into his eyes even when he could no longer see him. "Pam" He kneeled down next to her and pulled the wooden cane with care "Take my blood."

"Wouldn't it be better if she drink mine?" Jason asked. Eric suddenly realized Sookie's brother was holding his shotgun over his shoulder and Madden vampires, though outnumbered, were now tame and quiet, beheaded after the death of their leader "Sorry, Jason" He took the Beretta, and bit him on the neck. Only took a couple of sips and then left him with Pam. He got up and looked at the newcomers with a mouthful of blood.

"Sheriff."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Gaspar. And I belong to the area four of Kansas Kingdom."

"And why is the kingdom of Kansas here today?"

"My King asked us to come and help the Viking Sheriff of Louisiana Kingdom."

"Very altruistic. And the real reason?"

"That, I'm afraid I cannot answer it. We were ordered to come and help you first and then take you with us."

"You have to come with us. Those are the orders" another vampire said.

"And who are you?"

"My name is Rachel"

"We are not your enemies, that's for now, what is defending our king."

"Lucky me" he said ironically "I guess I have no choice. I see you are more than us" Eric saw that without the extra help they would have lost everything, and although there were some vampires of his area, Victor's vampires were more, and newcomers, furthermore "I need to settle something. I suppose your king will not oppose to me ending with the traitors?" he asked, knowing that he couldn't refuse to go with them.

"We have orders to cause the least damage to our own kind."

"What does that mean?" he asked the vampire "These vampires have conspired against two kings" the lady vampire looked at Gaspar.

"It will be dawn soon" said the vampire "I have seen that there is a cemetery on the right. We will hide them from sunlight underground, chained with silver, so they cannot recovered or get up until a decision is made with cold mind regarding their definitive death." Eric looked at him and raised his head proudly. He didn't know anything about Gaspar, but seemed to be talking to someone of great wisdom, was he a young vampire or not. He returned with Pam and gave Jason a few drops of blood.

"Stackhouse, see if your sister still has synthetic blood bottles in the fridge. She used to have them before."

"Immediately."

"I don't want to drink that crap" Pam grumbled.

"You'll eat something better later."

"What will you do?"

"Go with them. I don't think that I have a choice."

"I'll go with you"

"Not a chance. Jason! Deal with Pam, see that she sleeps in Sookie's house. Your sister wouldn't mind."

"I know. Are you sure to go with them?"

"No, but as I say, I have no choice."

"Northman, come on!" Rachel yelled. Vampires Kansas and the survivors, Eric subjects, were busy with the task of ensuring the enemies underground.

"Don't bring Sookie out from hiding. And if I don't return, Pam, go away, back to Europe."

"Don't say that..." He stroked her face and kissed her.

"Recover, wait till you hear from me, if you don't… you know what to do."

"Yes, Master" Eric left them and went with the vampires, who walked a few meters, before embarking race through the trees.


	32. Chapter 32

**Translator's note: **I tried but I didn't managed to finish translating it so here is the fourth chapter of the marathon… the fifth and last one I will post it during the day, or tomorrow.

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><p><strong>Chapter 32<strong>

While the children rehearsed their scenes, and with all roles and Leif all proud of himself, I was trying to get to do the scenery from a few planks and some old fabrics. We should reduce almost all to dialogue and swords (though I had found a timber to which would nail canvases that would serve me to represent the ships on the sea; some branches and brooms would serve as horses, and the enemies would differ from our own people because they would bring over their heads wool wigs) We had dinner on the floor, next to the fireplace, because Eric was using the table to flay the beavers, whose meat we would boil to feed the pigs (but the most tender one we will eat tonight).

After dinner, I continued with the props for our little function, while the children were rehearsing their lines and Eric continued his work on another one of those nights where my beloved would behoove to stay awake again.

The kids went to bed very late, and only pushed by the iron voice of his father and tucked behind mine, which was pretty sweet. I put Audr in bed and I sang a lullaby and then returned with Eric.

"Aren't you coming to bed?" I asked after realizing I wouldn't get to finish the props on time with itchy eyes as I had because I was sleepy and fatigued.

"I must finish this, but I'll sleep, be calm."

"Well then, I'll wait you" I said. And I sat beside him to keep him company. He said nothing for a while, until I rested my head on his shoulder.

"Sookie, I cannot move" He told me in an informative tone "And if I move, you won't sleep and even if could get to sleep, then you hurt all over. Lie down now."

"No, no. I'm not that tired" I said like a little girl. I hadn't seen him all day and I wanted to be near him. He smiled, leaned over and kissed me.

"To bed" he ordered "Sleep with the children, they'll be happy, and at least someone will enjoy your company in the bed tonight" I kissed him on the cheek goodnight and went to bed with Erik, since it was the only bed from which I saw Eric in front. The child nearly woke up, pulled his face to mine and whispered secrets and tiny fears shameful for a great little Viking like him. I comforted him whispering that his father also cried when a he nailed a splinter.

In the middle of night I noticed a big weight on my chest. I opened one eye and saw the small Audr that settled over me. I tried to move a little, but I felt trapped in the small bed. I turned my neck and saw that I was leaning on Eric's arm, his middle son drooling his torso. I made room for me with my body as I could, with Eric beside me and Erik above him and Audr resting quietly on my soft chest, which she used as a pillow. And although it was very uncomfortable, I fell asleep again soon.

I woke up late, when Audr laughed with something that Leif had made to Erik. My Viking slept beside me, or at least he was trying. Even for the two of us the bed was too small.

"I haven't slept at all" he whispered very softly.

"My whole body is soring" I replied in a soft tone also.

They knocked on the door and Eric protested. "It's coming! Leif, go and look to see who it is."

"They are Wolfren and his mom" he said "More children also came" All of them came in and I hurried up to get up. Luckily I had slept dressed.

"Hello, good morning! You are already here!" I combed my hair quickly, crushing the hair to my forehead.

"If on him depended we would have arrived at dawn" Fiora said "He has such an enthusiasm!"

"That's fine."

"But above all is that I wonder what are you doing, and he don't tell me a thing" I laughed

"You can stay if you want."

"I'd love to, but I cannot, the sow probably gave birth tomorrow and I have to watch it during the day."

"Oh, Eric told me: you need to take great care when they give birth. Who monitors it at night? Your children are young..." I asked.

"My husband watches her"

"Well, I'm sorry you cannot stay."

"So you keep the mystery" She smiled.

"I didn't think they would hold the desire to tell the surprise we are preparing."

"I haven't said anything to my mom!" Rowena said proudly.

"My grandson neither wanted to say anything to me" Sigrir said, Helgi's wife, who brought their grandchildren.

"It is a surprise" I stated.

"I hope it's as fun as Audr's birthday" Erin said, she was coming to accompany her younger brother, who was a friend of Leif and Erik. She was a very young girl, about sixteen, she was dating one of town's cowboy older children, which was a pain for her because he lived far from the villa and she couldn't see him as much as she wanted. But all would come to Halvar's party and she was excited. They wanted to get married soon, but his father felt that both of them were too young to carry home, so for now they will move to the forest to live in the dairy farm.

The women glanced at Eric, still skulking in bed and cursed that we had no longer good weather and they couldn't see Eric in his morning grooming ritual. It is known that among the women of the village, that Eric's washing time (and full nudity) was a daily entertainment program and I should admit it also had a record as the most seen thing in our village.

Children launched squeals while playing, and I tried to silence them when Eric cursed and complained.

"Don't bother Eric" Erin said "What beautiful furs you have hung, Sookie. Are they beaver furs?"

"Yes, Eric and Leif have been away two days for hunting. And these two big ones" I pointed out the two furs hung and stretched abroad "Leif captured them."

"Lots of girls will be after you" Erin said giggling. Leif blushed to the roots of the hair.

"It's a shame you're going to marry, Erin" Olga said laughing "If you wait a little longer... not much, eh, because Leif is almost all grown up."

"Maybe I wait, if he will be like his father" all of us laughed, including me. After chatting about men and laughing like fools (occasionally accompanied by an Eric's grunt) they left. And it was time to the children to make the trouble.

I organized them and explained the plot and we started rehearsing. I had prepared a few different colors wool wigs so that children could do double roles. So Gunnar was Wulfric in the first part of the play, but in the battle in the town, when he put the wig on, he became Ulrich the odious. Children were memorizing their roles and lines, as if it was a game, and text varied almost every repetition, but the important thing is that the context and the argument was the same. Eric got up cranky and children looked as if they expected him to go to eat them as a big ogre. But when he pulled a large knife as long as the children's arms, they looked at him with eyes shining with excitement and sincere admiration. I smiled.

When he finished his breakfast and clean impurities from the beavers furs, Eric took a wig, placed it on the head, accompanied the children in their trials and began to play his part. I have to say that children get more exited after Eric got in the role of Harald. They were fighting to cross (wooden) swords with Eric when they knocked on the door. It was Halvar. He was accompanied by Wulfric and Helgi.

"We are going to the forest to see if we hunt something for the festival tomorrow. Join us" the old boss inquired.

"Are you busy?" Helgi asked.

"Just a little fun" He hugged his son Erik against him "I prepare my bag and go. Leif: get the horse ready for me."

"I'll give you something to eat" I said, and I started to wrap in a cloth a piece of bread, smoked bacon, salted cod and an apple. They left at gallop a few minutes later.

The children went to their own houses before eating time. We ate some herrings, some marinated tuna and bread of the day before. I left Leif in charge of taking care of his siblings, reviewing the numbers and the first Latin letters they had learned and I went to the palace, to see if Helga needed my help.

Halvar servants were setting woodpiles near the palace, while Helga and other women prepared the tables inside. Behind of the house was the stable of the heads of out town, which was huge, at least five times Eric's. They had a mule, a female donkey, two warhorses and boarhound, and the rest of the animals were geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigs, turkeys, goats and even a cow.

"Oh, Sookie, its good you are here!" Helga said. She was thinking about how to arrange some imaginary tables and benches along the entire stay. I do not think that would fit all the people inside her home. Helgi's two wives and Wulfric's wife were helping. "We must prepare the tables here inside, the ones that go outside are prepared by the rest of the villagers. Wait, wait, that doesn't goes there, put it more far away! Go with Jora, Sookie" I accompanied Jora to the back and from there we picked up some logs that were tied with ropes in bundles and take them to the great hall. Helga struggled to untie them "These are the tables for the party. First you have to assemble the structure and then cover them with tables that are behind the house."

"I never get how to assemble these things" Jora said.

"Well… we have to put it together"

"Well the men will do it when they return" Sigrir intervened.

"No way. We'll do it ourselves. Halvar has laughed at me when I said I would go setting the tables. He believes I'm unable to assemble a simple piece of furniture."

"It's because you are unable" Sigrir he replied.

"This is easy" I said fitting a pair of woods. The women looked astonished at me "See? These go on the ground, like this" I said leaving four flat timber on the floor, which had two large holes in each end "And in each hole is inserted a leg. The legs are these do you see? They are worn here by the friction with the ground, while these others are what make transoms and sustain the tables on which we dinner. They are rounded for this side."

"How do you know that?"

"Ironically, I've assembled lots of IKEA furniture."

"What?"

"It doesn't matter. Come, help me with this" We began working and we get to assemble that afternoon all tables inside the house, but we didn't managed to assemble the benches. We decided it would be better to tell men that we hadn't time instead of telling them that we didn't know how. It was much less humiliating.


	33. Chapter 33

**Translator's note: **Fifth chapter of the marathon, next chapter on Friday, from now and forward I will try to update every Monday and Friday. Looking forward to see your reviews.

Hugs and Kisses.

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><p><strong>Chapter 33<strong>

I went for the kids and we ate at Helga's home, in a small, charming room, outside the great hall, now being occupied by the banquet tables. Helga warned me of the possibility that the men didn't return that night, not when they went hunting, to which I was indignant because I hadn't given Eric enough food. With so much free time, I take the opportunity to pick up the other children and organized an essay in the palace hall and I performed Eric's role.

Certainly, Eric did not sleep that night at home. And neither arrived in the morning, which I spent helping Helga and other women. We sat in a low chair in the main room of the palace and got to peel a lot of peas' sacks. We kept the pods in a wooden casks (then we would feed them to the pigs and chickens) and we put the peas in some pans in which we will cooked them with lard. I think we peeled at least a two hundred pounds of peas. I already had green and dry fingers when Halvar silhouette, accompanied by other warriors, spread across the entrance.

"She is here, Eric!" he shouted rotating half of his body. Within seconds, his silhouette backlight also drew the door.

"Wow, what a deer!" Helga said. They brought a deer of at least three hundred pounds.

"It has been taken down by my son. We have also brought other pieces" In fact they brought a mountain goat two boars, a dozen of hares and a wounded Eric.

"Eric!" he was coming bent over his side. "What happened?"

"Nothing, nothing" but I was thinking that maybe he had a broken rib "A small accident while chasing a boar."

"Yes, but he speared the deer and it was thirty yards away!" Halvar said proudly. I raised his robe and I saw he had a bruise that took up most of the right side.

"Come on, let's go see old Leiva."

"You have assembled the tables!" A surprised Halvar said, while Eric and I went away. We stopped by our house so Eric clean up himself a little (I helped and I took advantage of it) and also we had to pick one thing that Eric had kept in safe guard for the old healer, a leather bag, slightly bloodstained. I didn't ask what it contained.

Leiva fingered her side and concluding that nothing was broken or dislocated, gave me a poultice for it to be put on the bruise and asked me to place a bandage. Eric gave her the bag and she was as happy as a lark.

"Come on, sit still. Did I harm you?" I asked as I smeared medicine, which smell like mud and moss in the bruise.

"With those hands?" he made a gesture of pain "What soft hands you have."

"Shush. You could have hurt yourself a lot. Raise your arms so I can roll the bandage around you" he obeyed and I wrapped the poultice so I wouldn't fall or stain the clothing

"What happened to you?"

"I whipped Leonidas to jump a log without realizing that there was a low branch that struck me here."

"And you fell down?"

"No, I broke it in half."

"And I imagine it wouldn't be just a twig..."

"As fat as my thigh."

"What a brute you are!"

"It was it or me" I laughed.

"That's it" I said "Going back with your mother, because although I think they have already finished with the peas, we still have ahead quite a lot of sacks of onions for grilling."

"Ok. Take the children with you, please. I'll take a nap to be rested for tonight."

"Okeydokey" I bent down after covering myself with a fur to go outside and kissed him "Rest and be careful to keep the bandage in place."

When I left I noticed that several houses were taking their tables outside and bringing them to the fires, which were about to burn and provide warmth to those who had to eat in the open sky. I found Ivar and asked please to cut some branches of one of the trees around my home. He did what I was asking for without question and he didn't even ask why Eric didn't do it. He was happy to spend some time with me, though he was beginning to grasp that Eric wouldn't let me go.

In the palace the women had already finished peeling the peas, which were being baked with pork lard chunks as big as milk cartons. It smelled great and the aroma hid the onions stink which the women were cleaning and preparing for grilling. I sat next to Helga and began to help. I've always loved the smell onions left in the hands: like kitchen and home cooking. A few seconds later, I was in floods of tears, like the rest. We toss the onions in clay pots which subsequently put under fire, and the delicious smell of roasted onion aromatized not only the palace but the whole village.

When I left the room and bonfires were burning outside and people were excited. At home I prepared hot water and we began cleaning and grooming by turns, Erik and Leif in one, and Audr and I in another. I woke my man and urged him to start dressing as people began to gather for the celebration.

"What should I wear?" he asked.

"How is it that you don't know what to wear?" I said as I was dressing Audr with a linen camisole so the wool won't itch.

"This?" he pulled a robe of a trunk and showed it to me.

"By Odin, Eric, you should wear your best finery!"

"I have several" I left Audr sat in her bed and went up to the platform "the blue or the green one?"

"The blue."

"Green suits me."

"Blue is a more expensive color suits you best."

"Everything to be contrary. I think the green..."

"Why do you ask if you do whatever you want?" I left there him there planted and went downstairs to continue dressing the children.

Eric wore the blue tunic, thank goodness.

"Hurry, Sookie, we are late!" young Erik urged me.

"Come, we will be the last ones to arrive!" Leif hurried me.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

"How slow you are!" Eric said. I threw him a lot of dirty clothing to the head because he was being a jerk. I had to bathe and dress the children, take care of him and dress myself. And then he tried to pretend that we (Audr and me) were slow.

"Come on!" Leif took my hand and pulled me, half cover, away from home. As we walk into the palace we disperse and the only one that stayed with me was the small Audr. Eric went to see how was his venison roasting, Leif and Erik went with his friends and I went to Helga, who was in the process of nerves that all women suffer when we organize a party.

"Oh, Sookie, honey. You are gorgeous" I was wearing a red wool coat with navy blue and gold threads embroidered. It was one of the best dresses that Eric had given me.

"Thank you. Hello Jora."

"Can I catch a pork rind, Sookie?" Audr asked me.

"But only one" Halvar arrived at that time.

"Began to sit the people, Helga" he informed his wife "the food is ready."

"Ok. Take a seat, people of Bay Village" she shouted, and repeated it two more times and people began to sit on those places where they believed they must sit "Children at the table" she said pointing to the table that was to the left of the principal. "Leif, get to the head, and you, Erik, on his right."

"What about me, Grandma?"

"You on Leif's left."

"Come on, sweetie" I said. I took her hand and walked her to her seat. I filled her a glass of milk and placed a wooden plate front of her "This is yours. Eat well, and Leif, watch your sister" The boy nodded and I went back beside Helga.

"No, no, Stern, sit closer to here" the head of the village's wife said. She placed Stern, one of the warriors of the town, about five years older than Eric, closer to Halvar's throne.

"What about me?"

"Sit beside Jora" Helga said. I nodded. Jora, who was placing women on their sits at the end of the table, left me room beside her.

"This table is for the important women in town" She told me "That's the men's table, and that for the children. Helga and Sigrir sit at the head, but since I'm not Helgi first wife, but a concubine, must sit at the end. Same as you. But it is not so bad, we eat the same as other women" she reassured me. I sat beside her and when I went to take a sip of my mead, felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Sookie, stand up" it was Halvar. He looked at me sorry "you cannot sit here."

"But..."

"What's happening, Halvar?" Helga came to see what happened.

"Sookie cannot sit at the table with the important women. She is a slave. The only slaves inside are those who serve the food. She has to leave."

"But..."

"But nothing. She cannot sit here with her social rank, there are free men and women eating on the street and I cannot have a slave sitting at the table of important women" when Helga bowed her head and I heard her thinking that her husband was right "Go outside" the old boss commanded. I was so upset that I left to the street alone. I looked for a place to sit and found it in one of the most remote and lopsided tables.

I felt ridiculous wearing one of the best dresses that I had, adorned with two silver clasps that held my robe, my hair done for the occasion, perfumed and covered with beautiful cinnamon wolf fur and sitting in a table where the best dressed man was wearing a robe which has no less than eight patches. The roasted and chopped deer walked past our noses toward the palace. In the first tray, a metal one, were the best parts of the deer direct to the area of the head of the village. Slaves served the meat at the tables inside the palace but no one served at tables on the street. They left the pots with peas and grilled onions and those who were there out in the open had to awake to serve ourselves.

I saw Eric, sitting to the right of his father, taking a venison piece from the metal tray and laughing out loud about something that Helgi had said. He took a bite of a piece of roast pork and looked up, I guess to see if his children were eating well. Then he turned, looked at his mother and the women around her, not seeing me between them he turned to the other side. He got up and went over the table of women. I saw him frowning and muttering to himself.

Halvar tried to force him to sit but he refused. He went back over the tables and then I saw him asking about me. Halvar tried to silence him but Eric was already unstoppable. He peered into the street and I ducked my head, trying to hide. My position was humiliating enough to mount a scandal. The only reason I had not gone home was because of the children. He approached me and other diners seated at the same table where I was stood up as a sign of respect in the presence of Eric. I was the one who remained sitting.

"Eric!" Halvar stood about six feet to the back of her son "Come back to the table."

"What is she doing outside? What are you doing out here?"

"I was told that they didn't serve peas inside" I joked, because it didn't feel well to make my Viking more angry was the best idea.

"Come in" He ordered. He pulled my arm until I was standing.

"Sit woman!" his father shouted "She cannot go inside" Helga came and went there to stand next to her husband.

"I won't let my wife eat on the street like a common servant."

"You fucking with her doesn't make her your wife" Halvar spat. Images that were happening in the head of Eric came as clearly as if watching on a TV screen. Before Eric could began to full fill his dreams, which were to punch his father on the face, I clenched his arms, strong but warmly and placed my hands on his face, stroking it reassuringly.

"Come with me" Eric told me.

"No way!" Halvar shouted.

"Eric, please" his mother told him "I'll bring a piece of deer to Sookie now and she'll eat the same as us."

"Of course she will eat deer..."

"Don't think I love it..." I lied, but everyone ignored me.

"… don't even mention she won't" Eric continued "that she doesn't v try it when I hunted for her and my children, eat it, before anyone else. And she will eat inside with me."

"Damn kid, you're getting me tired!" Halvar made by pouncing on Eric but Helga stopped him as she could "She won't came into my palace" he persisted.

"Then we both go to our home" Eric concluded.

"May Thor's hammer strike me if I allow such a thing" The chief said "You will not make me such rudeness, I am the head of this village and your father!" People began to fidget and I saw Leif and Erik poke their heads and looking in our direction.

"Eric, Eric" I tried to get his attention "Go inside like he had told you, I really don't feel like eating meat" he didn't looked at me, he was still glaring at his father with his gaze "Eric! Don't in front of the children. Don't do this to them. I go inside, do it for me" finally he stared into my eyes "You know how excited they are. Not today, please. Go inside, I'll be fine" He shook his head but I insisted. However, he remained not fairly convinced until he felt the Erik's hand taking and asking him with a worried voice what happened. I went to push him, but he wouldn't surrender. I looked at Erik and smiled fondly. Then Eric looked at his son and then kissing me, turned around. They walked to the palace and with one last look (I smiled at him) they went inside.

The murmurs disappeared and talks, laughter and toasts resumed as the others returned into the palace. The meat came to the tables outside after the people who were inside were satiated. I didn't try bite. Neither did Eric.


	34. Chapter 34

**Translator's note**: I know I have been absent for almost 3 weeks now, but I was thinking about a story of my own inspiration that I am writing, and I also had to write a story for a gift, as part of a Secret Santa, and that story was really hard to write. But as promised I will post a chapter today and the next on Monday. And maybe, just maybe I'll post a marathon, on Christmas days.

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><p><strong>Chapter 34<strong>

After an hour and a half, when the people inside had already finished with their desserts (which never reached the street), the children began to get impatient. Eric came looking for me and accompanied by him (and given that the banquet was over) I entered the main hall. When Helga saw me, she stood up and began to prepare the front of the main table for the children, who were fluttering, could have their moment of glory. I was very angry with her because she hadn't interceded for me even a little. I felt like when I discovered Arlene's treason.

"Be quiet please!" cried Helga "Be quiet!" Eric took two pans, one in each hand, and clinked. People stared at him.

"Be silent!" he pushed his daughter, whose face turned all red.

"Peo... People of Valland's bay village" Audr muttered.

"Louder!" shouted a child.

"Speak louder, sweetie" I said.

"People of Valland's bay village!" she cried, some people smiled, and she blushed all the way.

"Go for it" emboldened her father.

"Some children have prepared a surprise for my grandfather... for the head of the town" she corrected herself. The children took the stage, placing branches that I made Ivar cut, pretending that it was the forest. Eric helped the small Wolfren up to the women's table.

"I, Oscar the Watcher..." he shouted as he pretended to be looking for something on the horizon "I watch the lands Valland's bay village!"

"What do you see Oscar?" asked a boy who hid behind a branch.

"What do I see? The enemies! Harald the stinky send us his horde. I must warn the people in the Village" he jumped from the top of the table, picked up a broom and climbed to the post as a little witch "Hyah! Hyah!" he reached out branches and children.

And the function started. Adults paid full attention, and applauded the kids and their actions, sometimes interrupting with some expression of joy or pride when recognized themselves in the play and sometimes, laughing form them or with them, like when they saw Erik and Leif with chain mails that dragged on the ground (They were their father's) or when Erik scolded a partner in the middle of the interpretation because he had said his part before him, or when Audr fell sulking after stepping on a child after she had "questioned "Ulrich, or when Otto stepped on the fabric that simulated the sea and disarmed one of our supposed boats. The truth is that special effects were not very well at all. But the function met all of its objectives: to entertain the audience, amuse children, inform the uninformed and embarrass some attendees, as Helga and Halvar, which felt quite uncomfortable in some parts of the play, as when everyone applauded the small Audr that playing Sookie Stackhouse, that means, me, took out the essential information from the prisoner to save the ships, or when Audr, again in the role of me, had the bright idea of changing the warning signal and thus avoid slaughter. In addition, Eric also did much ridicule, although it is true that it mattered him a little. He wasn't a man who cared about what people said.

Eric wanted to go home just after the applause and it didn't seem like Halvar and Helga were to stop him (although Halvar considered a big lack of respect that the son of the village chief left the celebration to the first change) but I didn't want, despite everything, to deprive the children of a little fun. So I begged him to drink a couple of beers while his children played with other children for a little while (as I ate a couple of baked apples Eric had saved for me). He stood away from his father standing far away from the group of men who he used to frequent. Neither wanted I to approach the women.

It was snowing so we took the advantage to push children to leave the games. We picked the three kids and got ready to leave the party. Halvar protested, of course, but Helgi helped us out play down the matter in his own way and reminding Halvar, with a bit of mischief, that young people like Eric had better things to do at home and with women like me that in a party full of old glories. Helgi spoke well because he felt much sympathy for me, Eric and our situation, he had to Jora, whom he loved like if she was his first wife. He understood Eric because if he it was for him, he would place Jora to the same right of Halvar the chief. I smiled, Eric took his daughter in his arms, who settled against him, and the five of us together left that buggy trap.

I woke up early in the morning. Eric was no longer in bed and he wasn't downstairs. I washed my face with cold water, dried myself, I covered myself well and prepared to go to the barn to milk a goat to get some fresh milk for the day. Eric was there, he already had half bucket of fresh goat's milk.

"Good morning" I said "You woke up very early" I knew he had troubles to sleep the night before.

"Yes, I wanted to get up when all was quiet" The truth is that in town you could only hear the barking of dogs, the cackling of hens and the lowing of some animals, because the people, were mostly still sleeping it off. Also, it a terrible day, horrible for anything other than being at home. It was snowing heavily and windy.

"And why is that?" I handed the bucket and stood up. He sighed and stroked my shoulders.

"I'm going."

"To where?"

"The forest, a couple of days."

"But you can't do that!"

"It's for the best."

"How it will be for the best? Just watch the weather! I'm sick of your hunts!

"I'm not going hunting. I will be out until the end of the party" I wanted to interrupt but he silenced me with his finger "You heard them. You are my slave" I frowned because I didn't think of myself as a slave to anyone, much less of him. I loved him with all my heart, he and his sons, and because of that I was with him but if I wouldn't want, I would have gone away either alone or with another man, it didn't matter if he liked or not "I am your master. And if I don't go to the party, you cannot go. I will spend two days in the forest and you will be calm and warm at home."

"How could I be calm if you'll be alone in the woods with this snowstorm?"

"I'll be fine" he confirmed "Better than here, I won't allow you to dine in the street with the snow falling above you"

"The snow is falling above both of us" I said "I rather spend two hours on the street than knowing that you will be two days out there. Please, Eric..."

"It's my call"

"What about me?" He held my face and stroked with his thumbs.

"This gives us time to miss us" he said. I made a raspberry, he smiled and leaned down to kiss me. I let him because I managed to grab his hands.

"You are not going to go. I won't let you" He laughed and in an easy movement he lugged me over his shoulder like a sack. He approached the horse and left me over it "What are you doing?" he climbed into the back of the animal and we went outside "Eric, I'm serious" I threatened "And besides that the children cannot go alone."

"The children can go easily that my mother will take care of them" he went to the door and none too gently dropped me on the soft snow "I'm already looking forward to come back" his eyes burning with lust. He cheered the horse and galloped.

"Eric Northman! Eric!" I shouted after him "_You big bastard!__**[1]**__"_ I shook all the snow from myself, and I kicked to the snow for a little while. But as it seemed that he wouldn't return and my feet were beginning to freeze, I went to get the milk, and went back inside home. I ran and opened the trunk. I sighed in relief when I saw that Eric had taken his bag. This man was going to tear my nerves.

Eric's departure and the children waking up late gave me time to think. Too much, perhaps. I realized how disturbing my life was right now when I tried to find in my brain the word in English for "curtain" and I didn't remember. I just didn't remember it. Then I noticed other things just as disturbing. The first is that for days I hadn't remembered my vampire and the second is that it has been almost a week since I missed my brother Jason.

While I was preparing the flour to the bread for the next days I began to think about Eric the vampire. Around this days I only remembered him when comparing them from one to another, especially in bed. And Viking Eric didn't like it for a bit. I read in your mind on occasion. Of course he didn't know I compare him with a future version of himself, but it seems that I get lost in my thoughts so much as to make him think that, indeed, I am with another at that time.

"Hello Sookie" Erik greeted me.

"What do you mean by "hello"?" I asked reluctantly "Kiss me now. Go, go wash your face" I said after kissing him and hair his hair down his head.

"I'm so hungry" Leif rushed breakfast and I had no choice but to give a campion.

"Hello, Sookie!" I said "You are very beautiful today, Sookie. Have you slept well, Sookie?"

"Have you slept well, Sookie?" asked the little sweet voice. I sighed because I could not get carried away by my anger.

"No, my life. Go and wash yourself too and then everyone for breakfast, huh?" I rubbed my eyes and I kept doing what I was doing.

"What a snowstorm!" Leif said after taking the dirty water and throw it away. Perfect. "Where's father?"

"Good question" I answered. He was collecting the bowls from the table when the doorbell rang. I opened and stood in the doorway one second "Ah, hello, Helga."

"Hello, Sookie, good morning" She said politely. I pulled away and although I didn't invite her with words to come inside, I did it with the gesture. At the end of the day, she was Eric's mother and the head of the village.

"Is Eric here?" She asked when she had closed the door and left the cold outside.

"The truth is that he isn't."

"Oh, is he in the barn?"

"No, he is not in the barn. He's gone".

"And will he be gone for a long time?"

"So he told me, yeah"

"Sookie..."

"Look, Helga, I do not know when Eric will come back. He has taken his horse, his bag and he has gone to the forest. I cannot tell you more."

"I understand. Halvar will kill a pig for tonight's dinner" She informed me and made a _I give a damn _face "So I come, to tell Eric to come to help."

"Well, you see" I stared and coughed to keep talking "If you're going to command me to go to help, I will, of course, because I have no choice. But if you are going to ask, if you're oing to ask like yesterday me to give you a hand..."

"I won't ask."

"Good, because I have things to do at home."

"Can we go with Grandma to the slaughter?" Leif asked. I smiled, I stroked his chin and nodded.

"Cover yourselves well" Helga said. They left me alone and I started to pick up and fold clothes. They returned before lunch, accompanied by their grandmother, and they began to tell me how much the sow have screamed while it was bleeding. The acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree, just have to see the passion they feel for the blood.

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><p>[1] She said this in English.<p> 


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35**

The storm didn't subside and from the window I saw that fewer people than had been there the day before congregated around the palace. Some were queuing, like in canteens for homeless, at the gates of the palace. But as soon they get food, they will return to their homes because no one or only a few would dare to eat today in the open sky.

"Why you don't come, Sookie?" Little Audr asked me, as I placed on her head a little leather cap with sheepskin padding.

"Because yesterday's dinner didn't agree with me and I don't want to eat too much."

"But I want you to come" She told me. Erik pulled on gloves and he shout to tell me that he was more than ready to go to the party, he was anxious. He and Audr out the door but Leif stayed behind.

"Why don't you come?"

"I got an upset stomach."

"That's not true. You've gobbled up a huge chunk of cheese and sausage for breakfast. And a good tuna steak in lunch. Tell me the truth, Sookie. Where and why father is gone?" I sat on a bench and sighed.

"As I am a slave I have to eat on the street. Because that your father is gone, so I don't have to go to the celebration and ate dinner outside in the snow."

"He is angry with Grandpa, right?" I shrugged.

"You also get angry with him sometimes, right?" He nodded and I poked him slapping his ass "Come, go with your brothers and grandparents. See that Audr eat well and drink at least a glass of milk. Okay? And watch Erik behave well!" I watched from the doorway until he went into the palace and I closed the door expecting to have a quiet night, thinking while knitting. Of course, that didn't happen. I was going to cut a piece of butter to make me some slices of bacon in the pan when some huge hits, that almost thrown down the door, scared me.

"Who is it? What's up?" I opened the door and Halvar came in as a gale.

"Where is he?" I did not answer "Where is my son?" he bellowed.

"He is not here."

"Damn cheeky kid" he said as he pointed me with a finger "And what are you doing here? Come to dinner!"

"Eric said that if he wasn't attending I shouldn't go" I excused myself.

"But my grandchildren are also your masters, so you have to go" He looked at me and I saw that his eyes softened "For all gods' sake... You'll sit at the table of the important women. Besides Jora, ok" I wanted to ask why he had changed his mind, but I saw it clearly in his mind: Nobody in the village cared that I ate inside, everyone thought I was the heroin that had discovered Harald's horrible plan. I picked up my fur coat and prepared to follow him "Is that my son hasn't given you best clothes?"

"Yes" I confessed.

"So you wear them! Dress up, I turn myself..." And so I did. I wear a nice dress and a bronze brooch inlaid with jade that Eric had left me, I combed my hair and picked up all the hair in a side braid. I covered it with a beautiful gray wolf fur that Eric used to cover himself and I went to the party.

I ate out of courtesy, although everything was quite tasty, because despite the loud noises made by the crowd, I could still hear the wind hitting the roof and it tormented me think about Eric in the woods.

"What are you doing, Sookie?" asked Jora, who was tasting a hot infusion, when she saw me covering myself with the fur over my shoulders.

"I think it best that I go home."

"Not in any way, after what happened last night, you should stay. In addition, it would be a disappointment to some that you left, and you look very beautiful tonight. Enjoy a little, and don't worry so much about your man. Sure he's fine, maybe even he's having fun, if he has gone hunting or fishing, oh, you know how they are!"

"But he even was hurt" I said. And I imagined him fallen from the horse, freezing in the snow, unable to get up. Some people began to sing and the girls, crazy of happiness, ran to dance.

"Let's dance, woman" Helgi came and tried to get Jora to dance, but she excused herself saying she was still drinking her infusion "Dance with me, Sookie" And I went to dance. After Helgi, who join Jora, Wulfric asked me to dance. And then Erik and Le did. And finally showed Ivar. Ivar who was thinking that tonight there was no Eric to compete with him. Ivar who was thinking about the opportunity to sneak out of there and to be alone with me. Ivar who hadn't thought that in Eric's absence, there was Halvar. In the third dance the young Viking tried monopolize me, the chief appeared between people and rescued me, claiming a dance.

After that, Halvar let me to go back to my home and also walked me to the door. The snow never stopped falling.

"Sookie, Sookie" Erik shook me and I placed the feather pillow over my head "Grandpa is here wants to talk to you."

"Five more minutes" I heard the giggle of the child, who got under the covers.

"Get up, I am hungry" Erik said. I started a tickle fight after I shake again to ginger myself up.

A while later I got up, I fix my hair in a ponytail and went down to the dining room, Halvar was sitting at the table talking to his grandson Leif "Good Morning!" I greeted and gave kisses to my two kids "What can I do to help you, Halvar?" I arranged five bowls of milk, one in front of Halvar, who motioned me refusing the invitation.

"It seems that despite the cold, everyone had a good time last night."

"It seems like" I put the milk to be heated and some bread to toast.

"Dinner was very tasty!" Leif confirmed. The children had eaten deviled eggs, roasted rabbit, hot cheese on bread and baked apples. I got to do a couple sausages which I diced in little pieces.

"Very tasty, yes" Halvar confirmed. And children talked about everything that they had eaten. I poured the milk and placed a honey jar in the center of the table and then I sweeten the children's bowls.

"More" Erik demanded after I put a spoonful of honey in his bowl, so I put a second "More!" I put another one "Come on, Sookie, more, pleeease."

"That's enough, your teeth would fall. What were you saying, Halvar?"

"It isn't good that Eric doesn't attend this celebration" he said in a neutral and polite tone "Do you know where he is?"

I sat down, I gave Audr a piece of meat and I drank my milk straight from the bowl like we used to, before answering.

"He said he was going to the forest."

"Did he told you where?"

"Not exactly, he only say that he would stay in one of the shelters that are out there for goatherds in our territory" Halvar snorted and stood up.

"There are at least fifteen" he turned and headed for the door "Anyway, we have to go after him. I will leave immediately" I stood.

"I'll go with you" Halvar looked at me before opening the door. I saw his thoughts clearly, and more than his thoughts, his memories: the conversation he had with his wife that morning. Helga had told him to go to find Eric and take me with him, it all began because of me and, knowing how stubborn their son was, it was best to let me try to appease him and convince him to return. Halvar had agreed because he thought Eric was fond with me.

"All right. Finish breakfast while I bring the saddle, oh and cover yourself" he left and I returned to the table. I drank the whole bowl of milk in two sips (I choked and Erik patted me on the back), I got into the mouth three pieces of sausage and a piece of bread.

"I gab fu go. Bebabe your selps" I said with my mouth full.

"What?"

"I have to go. Behave yourselves" I took a bite from the cheese and other from the bread "I have ate breakfast! Eat some cheese, Audr. And I'm watching you, Erik!" the child left half tablespoon of honey. I left and got dressed in a rush. Someone knocked on the door, opened it and watched Halvar, who was waiting for me under the snow which was falling generously, but gently, without wind. I wore rabbit leather gloves and an otterskin cap that had belonged to Eric's wife "Leif, come a moment" the boy came and I bent down to his level (not much, because it is quite tall for his age) "Do you remember what we did when your father was away? Remember what we talked about?"

"Yes."

"I want you to take care of them while I'm gone."

"Will you be okay?"

"I'm going with your grandfather in search of your father. What do you think? But listen, if anything happens, I want you to take your brothers to the hiding place and hide there. Do not play the hero, Leif Giants Killer!" He smiled at me and I smiled back "Grab a weapon than you can handle and stay with them. Okay?"

"Okay"

"You promise?"

"Promised" I stroked his hair and kissed him.

"What is that?" I asked Halvar just outside the house, pointing to the huge brown rider less horse he had at his side. He was riding on his horse.

"Helga's mare."

"But... but..."

"What?"

"I don't know how to ride!"

"What...? In my life I have heard...!" I looked at him, embarrassed because obviously, everybody knew at that time riding, even those without horse "Okay! Jump, let's go!" he reached out and made me get on the by his back "Hold on tight. Boy, boy, Leif!" he shouted. The boy came out to the street "Get the horse into the stable, go!" Eric's older boy obeyed, taking the reins of the female. Halvar spurred his horse and galloped out through the snow.

"Do you know where to look?" I asked Halvar loudly. I approached him and hid my face in his back, as we rode.

"I don't think Eric had stayed in shelters near the village, but also I didn't think he has gone to the farthest."

"Then?"

"We'll look for him in those that are at middle distance. If I know my son, and I think I do, he will be saying in Olfren's, the goatherd, shelter which is near the river rapids where salmon fishing is easy if the bears let you."

"Bears?"

"There are some of them still awake" he said "And the spawning season is not yet over. Yes, I'm almost sure Eric will be staying on that one, but we shall look in the previous ones too" And so we did. After the fourth shelter I thought about the possibility of losing the nose and a few toes due to freezing. I was so cold that I couldn't even worry about Eric. The conditions of the shelters that we checked were diverse, from distressing (the second) to good (with prepared hearths and various utensils) "What did I tell you? There he is! Ha!" he shouted, and among the thick snowflakes saw a refuge from which came a gray smoke, a sign that someone was inside.

"Eric, Eric!" I called him excited. I saw Halvar take his sword. Eric went out of the house at the second, where he was settled with the horse, bow and arrow in hand. I jumped from the horse and fell in my knees in the snow "Ouch!"

"What are you doing here?" He came, picked me up by the elbow, shook the snow from me and held me as he watched his father, still on the horse. I took the fabric chest and pulled.

"We have come to get you, so you come back to town" Eric tried to talk but I interrupted. "Last night I went to the party" he looked at me and then glared at Halvar.

"What...?"

"I had dinner inside."

"She dined at the table of the important women" Eric squinted.

"With Jora" I tinged "It's true, for real... I ate roast goatling, it was great.

"Come back; she can eat inside the palace, in the table of women, with Jora, at Helga's right. You have my word" Eric looked him in the eyes.

"If I... what if I go back?"

"Do you doubt my word?" Eric opened his mouth and but I covered it.

"Eric, Eric... watch what you say" Halvar horse snorted, two columns of steam rising from its nostrils "Being a son is not easy, but you are a parent too and you know it is also difficult to be one. Come, come back with me... come babe"

"Listen to your woman, boy" I looked at him with my best lamb slain eyes and he stroked my face "Or tonight let Ivar to monopolize her during the dance."

"¿Ivar?"

"I don't want to dance with him tonight, but if you don't come, I will."

"You are almost frost" He smiled. And I saw that he was convinced.

"And luckily I came hugging your father on his horse!"

"Your woman does not know how to ride."

"That's not true. My woman knows how to ride better than you think the other morning she gave me a demonstration..." his father laughed and I hit him.

"Eric!" I scolded. He laughed and the chief joined him.

"I gather my things. Yesterday I caught some salmons" he said pulling a string of seven salmon at least about of sixteen pounds each.

"Wow!" Halvar smiled knowingly. Of course he knew his son! "Any bear?"

"Two" Eric replied.

"You didn't get closer to them, right?" He pinched my cheek and he thought I was very cute when I worried about him that way, he thought I was beautiful, that my hair, skin and eyes were shiner than normal. He grab his things, divided the quantity of fish (to spread the weight per horse), he cover Leonidas, he cover himself and climbed to the horse.

"Come jump" he said holding out a hand "Climb in front, facing me" I did what he had said and hugged him, thrusting my hands under the wolf fur covering him "Are you okay?" I nodded "cover yourself with this fur."

"I said I'm fine. You wear it."

"This way" I sighed, because of course he had covered me with the coat "You really don't know how you ride?" I growled "When the warm weather comes I'll teach you, do you want? I need to borrow my mother's mare" he told his father, and went trotting "It is very docile" he explained "And then I'll get one for you."

"No need" I fluster. The trip was not entirely uncomfortable as I could make it warm next to Eric and distracted, not entirely in the conversation the men were having (about bears) but in the way that Eric's the voice rumbled in his chest. However, after the cold accumulated and while riding with Halvar and now with Eric, I thought that nothing in the world would make me want to ride again.

The children were very happy to see us and after greeting warmly, I went to sleep because I had my kidneys like mess because of the freaking jaunt. I couldn't stay awake when Eric took me in his arms whispering.

"I had warmed water for you" He whispered "You cannot go to bed after coming from a jaunt like that, with the cold you have, you will fall sick. Come take a bath."

"I do not feel like wanting to bath. I'm tired. I hurt all over."

"Come on, let's go" he took me in his arms (he juggled to avoid falling down the stairs) and he undressed me by the fire. He took me into a deep basin, which he had filled with water, and left me inside. I was with my knees to the chest, but he could bathe me.

"It burns" I said.

"It is warm, you are the one who is freezing. You shouldn't have come, you could get sick" Eric moved his hand down my back, soapy, and I went asleep. He pulled me out of the water, dried me and covered me and I lay me down on the Audr's bed.


End file.
